Tuğba Hezer Öztürk

She studied at the health department of the Ankara University and law at the Anadolu University in Eskişehir. Following she worked as a teacher.[2]

She was elected to the Turkish Parliament as a deputy for the province of Van in June 2015[3] and re-elected in November 2015[4] as the youngest member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.[5][6] In November 2016 an arrest warrant was issued for Hezer Öztürk, but she was not detained due to have travelled abroad.[7] She is sought for terror propaganda and having attended funerals of people who fought against the Turkish government. The prosecutor aims for an aggravated life sentence.[8] On the 27 July 2017 the members of the Parliament voted for the dismissal of Hezer Öztürk and  Faysal Sarıyıldız from parliament.[9][10] Both appealed their dismissal but the constitutional court decided to confirm the dismissal from parliament on the 7 September 2017 after having missed over a year at parliamentarian sessions.[11] Following she left Turkey and went into exile to Europe.[12] In February 2017 she received the support of the German party Die Linke in her defense.[5] On 5 June 2017, the Turkish interior ministry announced that 130 people who are outside the country while being suspected of militant links will lose their citizenship unless they return to Turkey within three months and meet government standards. Amongst the 130 people figured also Tuğba Hezer Öztürk.[13] From her party, she has been given the task to raise awareness from European institutions and politicians towards the human rights violations in south east Anatolia.[6]

She condemns the policies of the Turkish Government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) concerning women and [6] Kurdish politicians.[14] She is also critical to the decision of the Turkish parliament to dismiss her from parliament on grounds that she did not attend the parliament for a year as (according to her) the former prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was only about twice in parliament since he lost his post as prime minister in May 2016.[6]