Ayşe Acar Başaran

Başaran was born in Batman on October 2, 1985, as the second of the four children of Abdurrahman Acar and Sultani Acar. After completing school education in Batman, she graduated from Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Law in 2010. Başaran worked as a lawyer for the Batman Bar Association for 4 years. She is a member of the Free Women's Congress Association. Married to lawyer Özgür Başaran, Başaran is fluent in Turkish, Kurdish and intermediate in English.[1]

In 2013 and 2014, the HDP's predecessor party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) provincial executive appointed Başaran to its women's council. In the June 2015 Turkish general election, Başaran was elected as the HDP's Batman deputy to parliament. She was re-elected in the November 2015 Turkish general election.

In October 2018, Turkish police arrested many HDP members in the run up to local elections, including the co-chairs of the party in Batman, Nizamettin Toguc and Berivan Helen Isik on charges of supporting terrorism. Başaran accused the Turkish authorities of beating up her party colleagues and abusing the rule of law for political purposes.[2] In March 2019, Başaran stated that 713 party members had been arrested in the run up to local elections.[3]

In January 2020, Başaran criticised Turkish authorities in the aftermath of earthquakes which killed 39 people, saying "for the sake of [more] rent, the public’s health and the right to life is ignored".[4]

In February 2020, Başaran was included in the new HDP Party Assembly at the 4th Party Congress in Ankara, but was not included in the Party's executive committee, having already served two terms. Instead she will take part in working groups, and was elected as chair of the party's Women's Council.[5][6]