Figen Yüksekdağ Şenoğlu (born 19 December 1971) is a Turkish politician and journalist, who was a former co-leader of the left-wing Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) of

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

from 2014 to 2017, serving alongside

Selahattin Demirtaş Selahattin Demirtaş (born 10 April 1973) is a politician, author, and former member of the parliament of Turkey. He was the co-leader of the left-wing pro- Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), serving alongside Figen Yüksekdağ from 2014 ...

. She was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

since the June 2015 general election until her parliamentary membership was revoked by the courts on 21 February 2017. Her party membership and therefore her co-leadership position were revoked by the courts on 9 March 2017 following a six-year prison sentence for distributing "

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

propaganda".

Life and work

Figen Yüksekdağ grew up as the ninth of ten children in a rural Turkmen family in the village Gölovası, Yumurtalık, in

Adana Province Adana Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey located in central Cilicia. With a population of 2.26 million, it is the sixth most populous province in Turkey. The administrative seat of the province is the city of Adana, home to 79% of th ...

. She describes her family as devout, conservative and nationalistic. Nevertheless, her father made a point that his daughters were studying and were successful. During her time in high school, she began to engage in political activities and joined the labor movement. When she was arrested on an

International Workers' Day International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May, ...

demonstration, this led to conflicts in the family. At the age of 18 she left home and went to Istanbul; later the relationship to her family normalized again.

Political career

She was an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

parliamentary candidate for the Adana electoral district in the 2002 general election. She was involved in women's rights movements for several years before becoming the editor of the ''Socialist Woman'' magazine. While serving on the board of the ''Atılım'' newspaper, she was taken into custody in 2009 due to her political activity. She cofounded the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) shortly after in 2010 and resigned as leader in 2014 to join the HDP, with which the ESP merged later the same year. In June 2014 Yüksekdağ was elected the co-leader of the HDP together with

. She was elected as an Member of Parliament (MP) on the 7 June 2015, and re-elected on 1 November 2015.

Legal prosecution

She was stripped of the

parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians such as president, vice president, governor, lieutenant governor, member of parliament, member of legislative assembly, member of legislative council, s ...

in May 2016 and prohibited from leaving Turkey in October of the same year. She was arrested on the 3 November 2016 for allegedly not cooperating in “terror”-related investigations. On 21 February 2017 the parliament revoked her parliamentary membership and on the 9 March 2017 the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled she was no longer a member of the HDP. On 11 April 2017 she was sentenced to 1 year in prison for “terror propaganda.” On 7 January 2019 she was sentenced to pay 1'740

Turkish Lira The lira ( tr, Türk lirası; sign: ₺; ISO 4217 code: TRY; abbreviation: TL) is the official currency of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. One lira is divided into one hundred '' kuruş''. History Ottoman lira (1844–1923) The lira, along wi ...

for insulting the Turkish president President

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to ...

. On the 17 March 2021, the Turkish state prosecutor before the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...

Bekir Şahin, filed a lawsuit before the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

demanding for Yüksekdağ and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban to engage in politics. The lawsuit was filed jointly with a request of a closure of the HDP due to the parties alleged organizational links with 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 south ...

(PKK).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yuksekdag, Figen 1971 births Living people People from Yumurtalık Leaders of the Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Female party leaders of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey 21st-century Turkish women politicians 21st-century Turkish politicians People expelled from public office Turkish prisoners and detainees Politicians arrested in Turkey

Life and work

Political career

Legal prosecution

See also

References