Sirin Yazıcıoğlu Cemgil (11 May 1945; Buldan,

Denizli Denizli is a city in Aegean Region, Aegean Turkey, and seat of the province of Denizli Province, Denizli. The city forms the urban part of the districts Merkezefendi and Pamukkale, Denizli, Pamukkale, with a population of 691 783 in 2024. Denizl ...

, Turkey – 17 April 2009;

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

, Germany) was a Turkish lawyer; she was a significant activist in the 1968 student movement.

Biography

Actively involved in the 1968 student movement, she participated in the Turkish Workers' Party and the Federation of Clubs of Opinion. Whilst she was a law student at

Ankara University Ankara University () is a public university, public research university in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in Turkey after the History of the Republic of Turkey, formation of the Turkish republ ...

, she married Sinan Cemgil, the symbolic persona of the 1968 movement and student of

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a prestigious public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, ...

Architecture department, on February 8, 1969. On January 28, 1970, she gave birth to their son, who was named Taylan in honor of Taylan Özgur. After graduating she worked as a lawyer for a while. She took on the cases of progressive-democrats who were being prosecuted on political cases. She was imprisoned after the

1971 Turkish military memorandum The 1971 Turkish military memorandum (), issued on 12 March that year, was the second military intervention to take place in the Republic of Turkey, coming 11 years after its 1960 predecessor. It is known as the "coup by memorandum", which the mi ...

. Her husband Sinan Cemgil, was shot during gendarme raid in the

Nurhak Mountains The Taurus Mountains ( Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar,'' Greek'':'' Ταύρος) are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a ...

Kahramanmaraş Kahramanmaraş (), historically Marash (; ) and Germanicea (), is a city in the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean region of Turkey and the administrative centre of Kahramanmaraş Province, Kahramanmaraş province. After 1973, Maraş was ...

, where he headed with

Deniz Gezmiş Deniz Gezmiş (, 27 February 1947 – 6 May 1972) was a Turkish Marxist-Leninist revolutionary, student leader, and political activist in Turkey in the late 1960s. He was one of the founding members of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey ...

and his friends to prepare for the guerilla battle. Following her husband's death, Cemgil married Mehmet Özler which lasted for a few years. She got arrested after the

1980 Turkish coup d'état The 1980 Turkish coup d'état (), headed by Chief of the General Staff General Kenan Evren, was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic of Turkey, the previous having been the 1960 coup and the 1971 coup by memorandum. During ...

and spent two years in prison. When she was released in 1981, she left the country via political exile. She lived in

, Germany for 27 years. She died of poisoning due to intestinal knotting on April 17, 2009. She was buried in Istanbul's

Karacaahmet Cemetery The Karacaahmet Cemetery () is a 700-year-old historic cemetery located in Üsküdar, on the Asian side of Istanbul. Karacaahmet cemetery is the largest and second oldest in Istanbul at , and the largest burial ground in Turkey by number of interr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cemgil, Sirin 1945 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Turkish lawyers 20th-century Turkish women lawyers

Biography

See also

References