Salihe Aydeniz (born 1973,

Ergani Ergani ( ota, عثمانيه, translit=Osmaniye, ku, Erxenî), formerly known as Arghni or Arghana, is a district of Diyarbakır Province of Turkey. The district's area is 1489 km. Ergani District is located in the administrative as the Sou ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

) is a Turkish politician from Kurdish descent of the

Democratic Regions Party The Democratic Regions Party ( tr, Demokratik Bölgeler Partisi, DBP, ku, Partiya Herêman a Demokratîk, PHD) is a Kurdish political party in the Republic of Turkey. The pro-minority rights Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) acts as the fratern ...

(DBP) and a current member of the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Const ...

. Since November 2019, she is the co-chair of the DBP.

Education and early life

She received her primary education in

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

and graduated as a nurse from the health institute in

. Following she worked as a nurse in

Dargeçit Dargeçit ( ku, Kerboran) is a town and seat of the Dargeçit District of Mardin Province in Turkey. The town is principally populated by Kurds of the Erebiyan tribe and had a population of 14,976 in 2021. Neighborhoods The town is divided int ...

, Mardin. She also presided over the

Trade Union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

of Public Employees in Health and Social Services and was a member of the

Democratic Society Congress The Democratic Society Congress (, ) is a pro-Kurdish NGO favouring the implementation of Democratic Confederalism in Turkish politics. Its foundation congress was held between 26-29 October 2007. Structure It has 2 co-chairs, a chairman and ...

(DTK).

Political career

She was elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey representing the HDP for

in the Parliamentary Election in June 2018. On the 30 November 2019, she assumed as a Co-Chair of HDPs sister-party the DBP following which she left the HDP. With her membership of the DBP, the party became the 10th party represented in the Turkish Parliament. As an MP she is for a solution for a political solution for the Kurdish-Turkish conflict and supports that the Turkish opposition makes a more constructive approach to the Kurdish demands on

Kurdish language Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European languag ...

and culture. She doesn't go to

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

often and laments that the demands for an improvement of the human rights in the

Turkish Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () refers to the southeastern part of Turkey, where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of th ...

are seldom answered in the Turkish Parliament.

Legal prosecution

After a march in support of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

(PKK) in

Kadıköy Kadıköy (), known in classical antiquity and during the Roman and Byzantine eras as Chalcedon ( gr, Χαλκηδών), is a large, populous, and cosmopolitan district in the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey, on the northern shore of the Sea o ...

, she punched a police officer while the officer was only standing. After that she was accused of having pushed a police officer and taking part in a march without permission following which a motion was prepared to end her legislative immunity.

Personal life

She is married and has two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aydeniz, Saliha 1973 births Living people People from Ergani Turkish nurses Turkish Kurdish politicians Turkish Kurdish women Democratic Regions Party politicians Members of the 27th Parliament of Turkey Deputies of Diyarbakır