Emine Ayna, (1 July 1968,

Dicle Dicle (, ) is a municipality and district of Diyarbakır Province, Turkey. Its area is 738 km2, and its population is 36,114 (2022). It is populated by Zaza Kurds. The mayor is Felat Aygören from the HDP. Dicle is the Zaza Language and T ...

, Diyarbakir,

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 ...

politician. She was a member of the former

Democratic Society Party The Democratic Society Party (, DTP, Kurdish: ''Partiya Civaka Demokratîk'', PCD) was a Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey. The party considered itself social-democratic and had observer status in the Socialist International. It was c ...

(DTP). She joined the

Peace and Democracy Party The Peace and Democracy Party (, , BDP) was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014. Development BDP succeeded the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 2008, following the closure of the latter party for its alleged conne ...

(BDP), after the Constitutional Court banned DTP on 11 December 2009.

Life and career

Emine Ayna was born in Dicle in 1968, to mother Günay and father Osman. She is a niece of Ömer Ayna, one of ten victims of the Kızıldere Operation (30 March 1972). She is a high school graduate and founder of the Rainbow Women's Association. In 2007, she stood as an independent candidate within the Thousand Hopes alliance in the Turkish parliamentary elections, receiving 15.57% of the vote in

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 ...

and entering the Turkish Parliament. On 20 July 2008, she was elected to the DTP leadership, sharing this position with

Ahmet Türk Ahmet Türk (born 2 July 1942, in Derik, Turkey, Derik, Mardin Province, Mardin, Turkey) is a Kurds in Turkey, Kurdish politician from the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party). He has been a member of the Grand National Assembly of T ...

. She also became Chair of the DTP Parliamentary Group, when Ahmet Türk resigned. She is widely viewed as a hardliner in demanding Kurdish cultural and political rights. In June 2011, she was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, for making terrorist propaganda for a speech she held at a Newroz celebration in Siirt in 2007. It was stated that at the celebration she wore clothes featuring symbols of an illegal organization and that posters were also shown with the leaders of an illegal organization. In 2009, she stated that she could not speak

External links

Interview with Emine Ayna, June 2009

References

1968 births Turkish Kurdish politicians Living people Deputies of Mardin Democratic Society Party politicians Democratic Regions Party politicians Deputies of Diyarbakır Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 23rd Parliament of Turkey 21st-century Turkish women politicians {{Turkey-politician-stub