Nazlı Ilıcak (born Ayşe Nazlı Çavuşoğlu; 14 November 1944) is a prominent

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

journalist and writer. She was a deputy of the

Virtue Party Virtue Party (, FP) was an Islamist political party established on 17 December 1997 in Turkey. It was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and then banned on 22 June 2001 for violating the secularist articles of the Constitution. A ...

, elected in the

1999 Turkish general election General elections were held in Turkey on Sunday, 18 April 1999. For the first time, local, council and parliamentary elections were held on the same day. Bülent Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP) had been soaring in popularity after the captu ...

, losing her seat when the party was banned in 2001.

Private life

Nazlı Ilıcak was born 1944 to , a politician and former government minister, and his wife İhsan in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

, Turkey. Her brother is Ömer Çavuşoğlu. She attended the

TED Ankara College TED Ankara College Foundation Schools is a group of private schools in Turkey. It consists of kindergarten, elementary, middle and high schools. Its İncek Campus, considered sizeable with 141,000 square meters of enclosed and over 309,000 square ...

, completed her secondary education however at

Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul () is a French private high school located in the Harbiye, Şişli neighbourhood of Istanbul, Turkey. It was founded in 1856. The high school was established in the Ottoman Empire as a missionary school for gir ...

. Ilıcak studied political science at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; ) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second-oldest in Switzerland, and one of the oldest universities ...

. In 1969, she married

Kemal Ilıcak Kemal may refer to: ;People * Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a Turkish politician and the first president of Turkey * Kemal (name), a Turkish name ;Places * Kemalpaşa, İzmir Province, Turkey * Mustafakemalpaşa, Bursa Province, Turkey ;See also *"Kema ...

, publisher of the daily ''

Tercüman ''Tercüman: Halka ve Olaylara'' was a Turkish daily newspaper. It was founded in 1955 by Kemal Ilıcak (1932–1993), and associated with the center-right. It was based in the now demolished Tercüman Building. It was temporarily closed d ...

''. She became mother of two from this marriage. Her husband died in 1993 due to brain-bleeding. Ilıcak remarried one year later to Emin Şirin. Her second marriage ended in 2003 with divorce.

Professional career

She entered journalism after her father's death in 1972. After working in various posts at ''Tercüman'', she became publisher of the tabloid ''Bulvar''. She later wrote for the newspapers ''Meydan'', ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is a major List of newspapers in Turkey, Turkish newspaper, founded in 1948. it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' combines entertainment with news coverage and ...

'', ''

Akşam ''Akşam'' (''Evening'') is a Turkish newspaper founded in 1918, owned by Zeki Yeşildağ's Türk Medya Grup (T Medya Yatırım San. ve Tic. AŞ.) since 2013. In 2013 it had a circulation of around 100,000. History ''Akşams founders in 1918 inc ...

'', ''

Yeni Şafak ''Yeni Şafak'' ("New Dawn") is a conservative, Islamist Turkish daily newspaper. The newspaper is known for its hardline support of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AK Party and has a very close relationship with the Turkish government. ...

'', ''

Takvim ''Takvim'' is a Turkish daily newspaper owned by Kalyon Group. The word "takvim" means calendar in Turkish. History Founded by Dinç Bilgin in 1994, ''Takvim'' was acquired by Ahmet Çalık's Turkuvaz Media Group in 2008, as part of its $1.1 ...

'', ''

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

'' and ''

Bugün ''Bugün'' () was a Turkish daily newspaper. It was established in 2005. Columnists and journalists working for it have included Cengiz Çandar, Ahmet Almaz, Toktamış Ateş and Kamil Maman. ''Bugün'' was founded in January 2003 as ''Dünde ...

''. Ilıcak and a dozen other prominent journalists lost their jobs in 2014 because they criticized the government.

Political career

Ilıcak was a deputy of the

, elected in the

, losing her seat when the party was banned in 2001, and being banned from office for five years. She appealed to 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 ...

, ''Ilıcak v. Turkey'' (no. 15394/02), and it ruled this a violation of her human rights.

Prosecution

Ilicak continued writing anti-government articles defending Fethullah Gulen movement after the December 17/25 incidents in 2013. She was arrested in July 2016 as a part of ongoing

purges In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an ...

after

2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt In the evening of 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted ...

. On 16 February 2019 she received an aggravated life prison sentence. On 4 November 2019 the court of cassation lowered the sentence to 8 years, 9 months in prison, but released her on probation. She was released on 5 November 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilicak, Nazli 1944 births Journalists from Ankara TED Ankara College Foundation Schools alumni Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul alumni University of Lausanne alumni Turkish women journalists Turkish women writers Turkish women in business Turkish businesspeople Hürriyet people Sabah (newspaper) people Akşam people Yeni Şafak people Virtue Party politicians Living people Inmates of Bakırköy Prison for Women Turkish expatriates in Switzerland 20th-century Turkish journalists 21st-century Turkish journalists