Leyla Îmret

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Leyla İmret, September 2015

Leyla Îmret (official form: Leyla İmret ; * June 1987 in Cizre , Turkey ) is a Kurdish former local politician in Turkey. She is currently living in political asylum in Germany and is one of two German chairmen of the Halkların Demokratie Partisi (HDP).

Îmret was born in Cizre, a Kurdish city in south-eastern Turkey, on the border with Syria and Iraq . When she was just under four years old, her father died in a battle as a PKK fighter . In 1996, at the age of about 9, she left Turkey to live with an aunt and an uncle in Osterholz-Scharmbeck near Bremen. There she attended school and trained as a nanny and hairdresser. In 2009 she traveled to Turkey for the first time in 13 years and saw her mother and siblings again. In 2013 she moved back to Turkey completely. In 2014 she was elected mayor of the city of Cizre. In 2015 she was removed from office. Because of an interview, criminal proceedings against her were opened at the same time. She denied the allegations. After several temporary arrests, she fled to Iraq in 2016 and back to Germany in 2017, where she was granted asylum.

Political career and law enforcement

In 2014 she took part in the Turkish local elections, where she was elected mayor of her hometown as a candidate of the Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi (BDP) with 83% of the votes. She was one of the youngest mayors of Turkey and was the first female mayor of Cizres. During her tenure, she campaigned for the reconstruction and normalization of life in Cizre and especially for environmental protection.

On September 10, 2015, proceedings were opened against Îmret for inciting the people to armed uprising against the state (Section 313 of the Turkish Penal Code ) and propaganda for a terrorist organization (Section 7 of the Turkish Anti-Terrorism Act). A short time later, she was removed from office by the Ministry of the Interior. This occurred after the parliamentary elections in Turkey in 2015 and the resurgence of the conflict between Turkey and the PKK .

After PKK-affiliated Kurdish activists proclaimed “self-administration”, PKK fighters and armed young residents of Cizre barricaded themselves in some areas of the city in autumn 2015. There was something similar in other cities in the southeast of the country. The Turkish government then imposed curfews; there were armed clashes in which heavy weapons were used. Cizre was also affected.

After it became known that Îmrets security in Turkey was endangered, the council of her hometown Osterholz-Scharmbeck and the district council of the district of Osterholz showed solidarity with the mayor of Cizre. At the request of the left, both local parliaments passed a resolution entitled “Solidarity with Leyla Imret - for democracy, human rights and freedom of expression in Turkey”.

Due to her experience in Turkey, she fled to Germany at the end of 2017. She explained that "after three arrests and three releases [...] she no longer had any confidence in a fair trial." Due to the political persecution in Turkey, she was granted political asylum in Germany. Îmret is currently the head of the HDP in Germany. She describes her role as follows: “We are the force that brings together the various ethnic groups, religions and social groups in Turkey. That's why the government hates us. But that's why we are also good for living together in Germany. "

Honors

On December 16, 2018, Îmret was awarded the Carl von Ossietzky Medal by the International League for Human Rights .

Movie

Dil Leyla (2017), feature documentary by Asli Özarslan

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Deniz Yücel : The PKK carries the war into the cities , Die Welt, September 24, 2015, accessed on December 11, 2018
  2. ↑ Eckhard Stengel: Leyla Imret's fight for the rights of the Kurds . ( fr.de [accessed on February 13, 2019]).
  3. ↑ a b Deniz Yücel: How the PKK came to waste separation from Stalin , Die Welt, June 1, 2015, accessed on December 11, 2018
  4. ↑ Eckhard Stengel: Leyla Imret's fight for the rights of the Kurds . ( fr.de [accessed on February 13, 2019]).
  5. ↑ Wave of arrests in Turkey: In her old homeland, she faces jail. In: Nordwest-Zeitung. Retrieved August 22, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Eckhard Stengel: Leyla Imret's fight for the rights of the Kurds . ( fr.de [accessed on February 13, 2019]).
  7. ↑ Leyla İmret: 22 Yıl Sonra Döndü Başkan Oldu. News from the Turkish Voice of America from April 3, 2014.
  8. ↑ Cizre Belediye Başkanı hakkında soruşturma başlatıldı. Article in Milliyet of September 10, 2015.
  9. ↑ Cizre Belediye Başkanı görevinden alındı. News from the NTV dated September 11, 2015
  10. ↑ Seyhmus Cakan: Clashes in southeast Turkey kill seven, new curfews declared . In: UK ( reuters.com [accessed September 19, 2018]).
  11. ↑ Associated Press in Cizre: Turkey eases curfew after assault on PKK rebels leaves Cizre in ruins. March 2, 2016, accessed September 19, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Bernhard Komesker and Michael Schön: Kreistag shows solidarity with Leyla Imret . ( weser-kurier.de [accessed on September 29, 2017]).
  13. ↑ Asli Özarslan: "Leyla" - A Kurdish mayor in Turkey. In: SWR.de. January 17, 2018, accessed May 7, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Reinhard Kalb: Dismissed: Kurdin Leyla Imret continues to fight. In: nordbayern.de (Fürther Nachrichten). May 5, 2018, Retrieved May 7, 2018 .
  15. ↑ "I am still mayor". In: Weser courier. November 7, 2018, accessed November 12, 2018 .
  16. ↑ "Germany must protect us better". In: THE WORLD. June 10, 2018, accessed November 12, 2018 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Îmret, Leyla
ALTERNATIVE NAMES İmret, Leyla
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kurdish local politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 1987
PLACE OF BIRTH Cizre , Turkey