Canan Kaftancıoğlu

Kaftancıoğlu was born in the village of Çiftlik Sarıca, Mesudiye, Ordu, as the second child of her family. Her father was a primary school teacher, and her mother was a housewife.[2] After completing her primary, secondary and high school education in Ordu, she graduated from Istanbul School of Medicine in 1995. She completed her residency with the thesis "Forensic Medical Evaluation of Torture Cases", which she developed by screening cases reported by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. When she was working as an emergency doctor at the Suşehri Public Hospital, she met Dr. Ali Naki Kaftancıoğlu[2] and they married in 2001.[3]

Between 2011–2012, she served as the Vice President of the Republican People's Party (CHP) in Istanbul, responsible for the press, culture and communication affairs. She later worked as the party's Provincial Representative between 2012–2014. In the 2014 elections, she was one of the candidate's for Maltepe's mayorship.[4] In the 36th Ordinary Provincial Congress of CHP Istanbul held on 13 January 2018, she was elected as the party's Istanbul Provincial President.[5]

After Kaftancıoğlu became the CHP's Istanbul Provincial President, an investigation was opened about her various posts on social media, which were considered to be supportive of terrorism, offensive to the Turkish people, public officials and the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his family. While the posts caused tension between her and Erdoğan,[6] statements supporting Kaftancıoğlu came from the Peoples' Democratic Party as well as her own party. She eventually apologized to Erdoğan for her posts,[7] but repeated her admiration for terrorist group PKK's founding members. A prison sentence of 9 years, 8 months and 20 days was ratified on 23 June 2020.[8]

She was among the founders of the Social Memory Platform.[9] She has also written a book. titled Benim Babam Bir Kahramandı, which was published in 2009. She is on the organizing committee of the Ümit Kaftancıoğlu Story Competition.[10] She is a member of the United June Movement Steering Committee.[11]

2020 she spoke in solidarity with the protest 2021 Boğaziçi University protests and was called by Erdogan a terrorist of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front. This led to a criminal complaint against the president by Kaftancıoğlu.[12]

She's married to Ali Naki Kaftancıoğlu, the son of the assassinated writer Ümit Kaftancıoğlu. The couple has a daughter named Çağım Işık.[13]