Ebru Günay (born 1 January 1982,

Bingöl Bingöl (; ; ), known as Çapakçur before 1944, is a city in Turkey. It is the seat of Bingöl Province and Bingöl District,Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

) is a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

jurist and a politician of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). She was elected a member of the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...

in 2018 and is currently the spokeswoman of the HDP.

Education and professional career

Ebru Güney studied law at the

Dicle University Dicle University (, ) is a public university located in Diyarbakır, Turkey, and one of the largest higher education institution. Vocational schools are located in Ergani, Çermik, Çüngüş, Bismil, and Silvan, Turkey, Silvan History Dicle Uni ...

, from which she graduated in 2006. Following she worked at the Asrin Law Firm, and was involved in the defense of

Abdullah Öcalan Abdullah Öcalan ( ; ; born 4 April 1948 or 1949), also known as Apo (short for Abdullah in Turkish; Kurdish for "uncle"), is a founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Öcalan was based in Syria from 1979 to 1998. He ...

. She also obtained an MSc in

human rights law International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law is primarily made up of treaties, ag ...

from the

Bilgi University Istanbul Bilgi University () is a private university founded in 1996, located in Eyüpsultan, Istanbul, Turkey. The university has four campuses in Istanbul: SantralIstanbul, SantralIstanbul, Kuştepe, Dolapdere, and Kozyatağı. History The ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Legal prosecution

Ebru Güney was arrested due to an investigation into the activities of the

Kurdistan Communities Union The Kurdistan Communities Union (, KCK) is a Kurdish political organization committed to implementing Abdullah Öcalan's ideology of democratic confederalism. The KCK also serves as an umbrella group for several confederalist political parties o ...

(KCK) in 2009 and prosecuted during the KCK-trial in which the defendants were accused of supporting a terrorist organization. She was released pending trial after five years in April 2014. In September 2019, the Turkish Supreme Appeals court confirmed her acquittal in the KCK main case in which initially more than 150 people were prosecuted.

Political career

Ebru Güney was elected to the Turkish Parliament representing the HDP for

Mardin Mardin (; ; romanized: ''Mārdīn''; ; ) is a city and seat of the Artuklu District of Mardin Province in Turkey. It is known for the Artuqids, Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on a rocky hill near the Tigris ...

in the parliamentary elections of June 2018 and is the current spokeswoman for the HDP. She supports that Kurds can be educated in their native language if they wish and condemns the Turkish denial of Kurds.

Spokeswoman of the HDP

Ebru Güney declared the HDPs opposition to

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

denial of

Selahattin Demirtaş Selahattin Demirtaş (born 10 April 1973) is a Kurdish politician, lawyer and author. He was the co-leader of the left-wing pro- Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), serving alongside Figen Yüksekdağ from 2014 to 2018. Selahattin Demirt ...

' release from prison or called for snap elections in October 2020. Following the widely perceived by the Turkish mafia boss Sedat Peker in June 2021, she demanded an investigation into the depopulation policy against the Kurds in the 1990s.

Foreign politics

Ebru Güney and fellow HDP MP

Garo Paylan Garo Paylan (Armenian: Կարօ Փայլան, born 1972) is a politician from Turkey and one of the country's leading democracy activists. Paylan was among the few Armenians elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and served for two cons ...

toured several countries in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

in August 2019 and also met the president of the

Mercosur Parliament The Mercosur Parliament (, ), known also as Parlasur, or Parlasul, is the parliamentary institution of the Mercosur trade bloc. It is composed of 81 MPs, 18 from each member states of the bloc – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay &n ...

. In September 2020, she took part in the negotiations with representatives of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

regarding the human rights situation in Turkey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Günay, Ebru 1982 births Living people Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) politicians Turkish prisoners and detainees Dicle University alumni Kurdish jurists 21st-century Turkish women politicians 21st-century Kurdish politicians Kurdish women in politics 21st-century Kurdish women