Gültan Kışanak | |
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| Mayor ofDiyarbakır | |
| In office 31 March 2014 – 30 October 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Osman Baydemir |
| Succeeded by | Cumali Atilla |
| Co-chair of thePeace and Democracy Party | |
| In office 4 September 2011 – 22 April 2014 Serving with Selahattin Demirtaş | |
| Preceded by | Selahattin Demirtaş |
| Succeeded by | Party abolished SeeDemocratic Regions Party |
| Member of theGrand National Assembly | |
| In office 22 July 2007 – 31 March 2014 | |
| Constituency | Diyarbakır (2007) Siirt (2011) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1961-06-15)15 June 1961 (age 64) |
Gültan Kışanak (pronunciationⓘ; born 15 June 1961)[1] is aKurdish journalist, author and politician from Turkey. Kışanak was born inElazığ in 1961. Her family is originally fromTunceli.[2][3] She is a former member of theGrand National Assembly of Turkey and Head of Municipality ofDiyarbakır. She has been imprisoned since October 2016.
In 1978 Kışanak began studying at the Faculty of Education ofDicle University but was arrested in 1980 and imprisoned in theDiyarbakir Prison for two years. According to her own account, she was forced to stay in the prison warden's dog kennel for two months because she refused to stand up in his presence.[4] In another speech, she said that she slept in a dog hut for six months.[5][6] She began studying journalism atEge University,İzmir, in 1986. On the March 16, 1988, she was arrested while protestingSaddam Hussein's attack onHalabja. She was released one year later. After her release, she graduated in 1990.[1]
From 1990 to 1992, she wrote for the newspaperYeni Ülke. Afterward, from 1990 to 2004, she worked as an editor-in-chief, an editorial coordinator, or a news director in a variety of newspapers.[1] For the pro-KurdishÖzgür Gündem, she reported fromAdana and after she moved toIstanbul, she served as its editor-in-chief for a while. Following the closure ofÖzgür Gündem in 1994, she wrote forÖzgür Ülke[7] which was shut down on February 2, 1995, on the grounds that it represented a continuation ofÖzgür Gündem.[8]
In 2004 she became a social policy consultant in theBaĝlar Municipality in Diyarbakir and was involved in the Kardelen Women's House inDiyarbakır.[1] She stood successfully as an independent candidate within theDemocratic Society Party (DTP) supportedThousand Hopes alliance in the2007 parliamentary election in Turkey and became an MP for Diyarbakır.[9] During the campaign, she was quoted as saying, "This election is important because Turkey is at a crossroads. Either it is going to opt for developing democratic alternatives or will bring the oppressive policies back on to the agenda. We are hoping for the democratic forces to come out of these elections much stronger and help to establish the options of democracy dialog and peace. We'll search for solutions not in violence, but in parliament."[10]
At the beginning of 2009, it was reported that she had prepared a bill to enable theKurdish language to be used in the public space.[11][12] For theParliamentary Elections in 2011 she was elected as an independent candidate from southeasternSiirt province.[13]
In theMunicipal elections in March 2014,[14] she was elected as a first female Head of Municipality ofDiyarbakır.[15] In view of the detentions of several mayors from theDemocratic Regions Party (DBP) over self-government claims, she defended them alleging self-governance is a political aim and also demanded self-governance.[16] On October 25, 2016,she was detained together with co-mayor Fırat Anlı[17] which led almost one hundredfeminist andLGTB rights organizations to demand her release.[18]
According to her own account, Kisanak was imprisoned for4+1⁄2 years before she was arrested again.[19] Her renewed detention in October 2015 was on "charges of being a member of theKurdistan Workers Party (PKK)".[17] Following the two co-mayors' arrest, the Turkish government ordered a general internet blackout.[20] Nevertheless, on October 26, several thousand demonstrators at Diyarbakir City Hall demanded the mayors' release.[17] In November, public prosecutors demanded a 230-year prison sentence for Kışanak.[21] In February 2019 she was sentenced to 14 years and 3 months in prison for "being a member of a terrorist organization" and for "propaganda of a terrorist organization".[22] While in prison, she compiled essays by herself and other imprisoned Kurdish women politicians into the bookThe Purple Color of Kurdish Politics.[23] She is detained in theF-Type prison inKandira,Kocaeli.[24] She was released on 16 May 2024.
She grew up in a household of anAlevi faith.[25] She is married and has a daughter.[3]
She was featured in the 2008 filmWhat a Beautiful Democracy, about the struggle of Turkish women running for parliament.[26]
She was also interviewed for the movieHevî byYüksel Yavuz.[27]
Her daughter discusses her imprisonment in the 2023 filmTearing Walls Downby Şerif Çiçek and Hebûn Polat.[28]
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