Gökay Akbulut (born 16 November 1982) is a German politician and social scientist. She is currently serving in the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...

(federal parliament) as a member of

The Left Party The Left (german: Die Linke; stylised as and in its logo as ), commonly referred to as the Left Party (german: Die Linkspartei, links=no ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of th ...

from the German federal state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

Early life, education and profession

Akbulut was born in Pinarbaşi,

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, into a family of

Alevi Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, ...

Kurdish background. After graduating from high school in Hamburg, Akbulut studied political sciences, sociology and public law at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

from October 2003 until September 2008. She graduated with a Magister. She completed an internship at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

offices in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in 2007 as well as an internship with the members of parliament Alexander Ullrich and

Heike Hänsel Heike Hänsel (born 1 January 1966) is a German politician, representing The Left. Born in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Heike Hänsel served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Baden-Württemberg from 2005 to 2021. Life After gra ...

in Berlin. While still studying at the University, Akbulut worked as a waitress and in a call-center to finance her studies. Later she worked as an educator in the field of education with underprivileged youth and refugees. From 2012 - 2016 she was an independent lecturer at the Mannheimer Abendakademie und Volkshochschule GmbH in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

. From 2016 -2017 she worked as a speaker for migration and education at the political foundation Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung in

, Stuttgart.

Political engagement

In her youth she attended many Kurdish manifestations and got to known the solidarity of the left-wing politicians. In 2006 she worked in an office of

. Since 2006 Akbulut is a member of The Left Party in Germany. Since 2012 she is also an active member of The Left Party Mannheim, where she served on the board of the local District association Kreisverband Mannheim. From May 2014 until June 2018, Akbulut represented the Left Party as a member of the municipal council of Mannheim (Mannheimer Gemeinderat) in the committees for education, integration and security. In 2016 she led the main election campaign as the appointed lead candidate during the local elections in the federal state of Baden-Wurttemberg. Akbulut is a member of the GEW Baden-Württemberg, the Rosa-Luxemburg Stiftung and

Attac The Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (''Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action'', ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the e ...

. Moreover she is committed to the work with and for refugees and serves as a member on the board of the refugees project "Mannheim sagt JA Flüchtlingshilfe" (Mannheim says yes), the network of Kurdish Academics and Cevi, the Kurdish Women's network. She was elected to the German Parliament (''German:Bundestag'') in 2017.

Member of Parliament

Akbulut ran for the first time in the 2017 federal elections on behalf of her local district association (Landesverband Mannheim) and was elected to the third place of the Landesverband Baden-Württemberg's candidate list. At the German Parliament she represents her local electoral district Mannheim and is one out of six members of parliament from the federal state of

for The Left Party. Akbulut is the spokeswoman for migration and integration on behalf of the Left faction. She is a full member of the Committee for Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection and a deputy member of the Committee for Internal Affairs. Akbulut is also a full member of the European Law Subcommittee. She represents the Left faction in the German-Turkish as well as in the German-Greek Parliamentary Group of the German Parliament. Due to years of active work in Kurdish associations and her support for the Kurdish Movement, Akbulut is well connected all over Europe. In 2017 the press reported that Akbulut was under observation of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution because of her pro-Kurdish activism. She was accused of having been in contact with Kurdish organizations, who are allegedly associated with the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sou ...

(PKK). Akbulut is pressing charges against this observation, which supposedly started in 2007. She receives support for her legal resistance against this observation from her party The Left.

Political views

During debates on the possible ratification of the Global Compact for Migration of Germany Akbulut was the leading voice in the support of the Compact's ratification by Germany, opposing the position of faction chairwoman

Sahra Wagenknecht Sahra Wagenknecht (born Sarah Wagenknecht; ; 16 July 1969) is a German politician, economist, author and publicist. Since 2009, she has been a member of the Bundestag for The Left. From 2015 to 2019 she served as parliamentary co-chair of her pa ...

. Akbulut expressed criticism against Wagneknecht's controversial statements on the topics of migration and her engagement for her private campaign

Aufstehen Aufstehen (German: ''Stand up'') is a left-wing collective movement founded by Die Linke politician Sahra Wagenknecht in the summer of 2018. Its co-founders and participants include leading members of Germany's left-oriented parties as well as su ...

. She is critical of the current political order in Germany and would like to see broader democratic possibilities. She'd prefer the economy would have to adapt more to the democracy instead that the democracy adapts to according to the economy. She is an opponent of the Turkish Government of

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 t ...

References

External links

Gökay Akbulut
on Die Linke.de
Biographie at Deutschen Bundestag

Private Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akbulut, Gökay 1982 births Living people German people of Kurdish descent German politicians of Turkish descent Turkish emigrants to Germany Naturalized citizens of Germany People from Pınarbaşı, Kayseri Members of the Bundestag for Baden-Württemberg Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag for The Left Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Female members of the Bundestag 21st-century German women politicians