Sezgin Tanrıkulu (born May 27, 1963) is a Turkish human rights lawyer known for his defense of the rights of

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 ...

citizens. He is currently serving as an MP in the Turkish Grand Assembly with the

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...

(CHP).

Early life and education

Tanrıkulu is from

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, it is ...

, Turkey. He attended law school in

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 ...

, graduating in 1984. When he returned to Diyarbakır, he found it under emergency rule by the

Turkish government The Government of Turkey () is the national government of Turkey. It is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative democracy and a constitutional republic within a pluriform multi-party system. The term government can me ...

and its mayor

Mehdi Zana Mehdi Zana (born 20 December 1940) is an author and former Kurdish politician from Turkey. At: "KORT BIOGRAFI ÖVER FÖRFATTAREN OCH POLITIKERN MEHDI ZANA" He is prominent Kurdish political activist a former Mayor of Diyarbakır. Following the cou ...

, husband of politician

Leyla Zana Leyla Zana (born 3 May 1961) is a Kurdish politician in Turkey. She was imprisoned for ten years for her political activism, which was deemed by the Turkish courts to be against the unity of the country. She was awarded the 1995 Sakharov Prize ...

, charged with separatism. Tanrıkulu became involved in Zana's case and soon became a full-time human rights lawyer.

Professional career

He is the co-founder of the Diyarbakır Human Rights Association and the representative of the

Human Rights Foundation of Turkey The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey ( HRFT; , TİHV) is headquartered in Ankara. The organization is committed to treating torture survivors and documenting human rights violations in daily bulletins, monthly and annual special reports in Turkish ...

. He advised the people how to file a case at the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

. He was indicted several times for his legal activities. In 1994, he was charged with "insulting the judiciary" after he appealed a conviction that had relied on a statement extracted by torture. From 1990 to 1995, six of his friends and colleagues were murdered for their work on human rights cases. He was the President of the

Diyarbakır Bar Association The Diyarbakır Bar Association is an organization of lawyers established in the year 1927. It is one of the 81 members of the Turkish Bars Association. Several of its leaders were prosecuted and one of its presidents was assassinated. The curre ...

from 2002 to 2008.

Political career

Sezgin Tanrıkulu joined the

(CHP) in 2010, becoming the CHP director of Human Rights and 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 2011. He was re-elected each time and currently is still a member of parliament. In parliament he defended the minority rights and the human rights of the prisoners. He is also defender of the press freedom in Turkey, and released a report which criticized the closing down of media outlets and the imprisonment of journalists. He opposed the arrest of the academics for peace who signed a petition urging for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict in 2016. In September 2020, it was reported that Tanrıkulu was appointed the advisor to party leader Kemal Kılıcdaroğlu. In the

2023 Turkish general election General elections were held in Turkey on 14 May 2023, combining 2023 Turkish presidential election, presidential elections and 2023 Turkish parliamentary election, parliamentary elections to elect 600 members of the Grand National Assembly of Tu ...

, Tanrıkulu was the parliamentary candidate of the CHP in

; he became the first CHP candidate to be elected from Diyarbakır since

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Prosecution

An investigation was launched for degrading the Turkish Republic for his remarks where he made public his opposition towards the Turkish military operation into Syria in October 2019. On 25 April 2022, Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation on Tanrıkulu over "insulting Turkishness" after he called for remembrance of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals that were forcibly disappeared on 24 April, the

Armenian genocide remembrance day Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day ( ''Mets Yegherrni zoheri hishataki or'') or Armenian Genocide Memorial Day is a public holiday in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (before the flight of its Armenian population) and is observed by the Armenian dia ...

Awards

In 1997, he received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award along with fellow attorney Senal Sarihan. This is an award given each year to an individual whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New Yo ...

's vision and legacy.

References

External links

*https://twitter.com/MSTanrikulu {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanrikulu, Sezgin Living people People from Diyarbakır 20th-century Turkish lawyers Year of birth missing (living people) Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 27th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 28th Parliament of Turkey Istanbul University Faculty of Law alumni 21st-century Turkish lawyers