Faysal Sarıyildiz (born 10 April 1975,
Cizre
Cizre (; ar, جَزِيْرَة ٱبْن عُمَر, Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar, or ''Madinat al-Jazira'', he, גזירא, Gzira, ku, Cizîr, ''Cizîra Botan'', or ''Cizîre'', syr, ܓܙܪܬܐ ܕܒܪ ܥܘܡܪ, Gāzartā,) is a city in the Cizre Dis ...
)
is a politician of the
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and a former Member of Parliament representing the
Sırnak Province.
Education and early life
He studied mechanical engineering at the
University of Harran in the province of
Sanliurfa
Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa () and in ancient times as Edessa, is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features e ...
,
and reported for the Kurdish newspapers
Ülkede Gündem and
Özgür Bakış. He was arrested in April 2009 and prosecuted for being a member of the
Kurdistan Communities Union
The Kurdistan Communities Union ( ku, Koma Civakên Kurdistanê, italic=yes, KCK) is a Kurdish political organization committed to implementing Abdullah Öcalan's ideology of democratic confederalism. Öcalan, Abdullahbr>Declaration of Democratic ...
(KCK).
Political career
He was elected to parliament in June 2011 as an independent supported by the
Labour, Democracy and Freedom Bloc
The Labour, Democracy and Freedom Bloc (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Emek, Demokrasi ve Özgürlük Bloğu'') was an electoral alliance formed by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) with several other smaller left-wing parties and polit ...
, but was denied to assume his post as the court ruled the parliamentary immunity does not apply in his case. In January 2014, after a court decided the imprisonment their imprisonment violated their human rights, since they were elected as MPs, he was released from prison together with
Selma Irmak, Gülser Yıldırım, Kemal Aktas and
Ibrahim Ayhan. Following they delivered their oath in parliament. He was re-elected as an MP representing Şırnak in the General elections of June 2015 and the snap elections of November 2015, then for the HDP. Sarıyıldiz was defending the wounded during the
curfew in Cizre in the winter of 2015-16 and called the
UN for help. In April 2016 he left Turkey for exile and Turkey issued an arrest warrant for him.
In exile
While in exile he was further on involved in the defense of Kurdish rights, and also kept being an MP for the Turkish Parliament. On the 7 September 2017 he and
Tuğba Hezer Öztürk
Tuğba Hezer Öztürk (born 4 October 1989, Erciş, Turkey) is a Turkish politician from Kurdish descent of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and a former Member of the Grand National Assembly for of Van.
Education
She studied at the healt ...
, were both relieved from her duties in parliament by the vote of the majority of the parliamentarians. The next day the Constitutional Court confirmed their dismissal. On 5 June 2017, the
Turkish Interior Ministry announced that 130 people who are outside the country while being suspected of militant links will lose their
citizenship
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
unless they return to Turkey within three months and meet government standards. Amongst the 130 people figured also Faysal Sarıyildız.
Turkey plans to strip 'fugitives' of citizenship, including Gulen: ministry
Reuters, 5 June 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2020
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sariyildiz, Faysal
Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) politicians
People expelled from public office
Politicians arrested in Turkey
Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey
Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey
Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey
People barred from public office
1975 births
Living people
People from Cizre
Exiled Turkish politicians