Pervin Buldan

Early life

She was born in Hakkâri Province in 1967, where she grew up and went to school. She graduated from high school Later Pervin Buldan appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which ruled in favor of Buldan and acknowledged there was a violation of Art. 2 and 13 of the European Convention of Human Rights, that there were deficiencies in the investigations around the death of Savas Buldan and ordered Turkey to pay her and her family 26'000€.

Human rights

In 2001 she founded Yakay-Der, the Association of Solidarity and Assistance for the Families of Missing Persons, to help the families of missing persons in Turkey, of which she is now president. Before this she worked for Mag-Der, an association with similar objectives which was closed down by the Turkish authorities because of alleged irregularities with respect to the Turkish Law of Associations.

Yakay-Der grew out of the experience of the Saturday Mothers, who used civil disobedience to gain publicity and bring attention to the ‘disappearances in custody’ cases. These cases became known to the public in Turkey as well as to the world at large. Buldan has described how every week they would hold sit-down demonstrations at the Galatasaray Square to "ask for the people that have disappeared", to the state to talk about the "reality of the disappeared".

Political career

After her husband died, she pursued a political career. In the parliamentary elections of 1999 and 2002 she was a candidate for a seat in the Turkish Parliament but didn't enter as her party didn't make the electoral threshold. In July 2007, Buldan stood as an independent candidate within the Thousand Hopes alliance in the Turkish parliamentary elections and entered the Turkish Parliament as an MP for Iğdır. She was re-elected for a second term in the 12 June 2011 general election. In 2008 an investigation was opened against her for a speech that she made during the Newroz celebrations in Iğdır. In April 2010 she headed a group of MPs who demanded an investigation into the Armenian nuclear power plant at Metsamor, near the Turkish border. In 2013 she paid visits to Abdullah Öcalan at İmralı prison as deputy chair of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) as part of the peace process between the PKK and Turkey. On 11 February 2018 she was elected co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) together with Sezai Temelli. In the Parliamentary Elections of 24 June 2018 she was elected as an MP of Istanbul for the HDP. In February 2020, she was re-elected as party co-chair, with Mithat Sancar replacing Temelli as co-chair. On the 17 March 2021, the state prosecutor Bekir Şahin demanded for her and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban to a political activity together with a closure of the HDP due to organizational links with the PKK. In the parliamentary elections of 2023, she was re-elected to the Grand National Assembly, representing Van for the Green Left Party (YSP).

Political positions

She opposes the so-called one-man rule by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and is in favor of education in the Kurdish language. She also condemned the replacements of elected mayors by political trustees. In her capacity as co-chair of the HDP she was responsible to meet the presidential candidate of the opposition, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and later announce that the HDP will not nominate an own presidential candidate.

References

References

1. Cellikan, Ali. ""Wir sind an Verhaftungen gewöhnt"".
2. Sibel Hurtas. (10 March 2015). "From housewife to Kurdish peace negotiator". Al Monitor.
3. (29 January 2008). "Pervin Buldan - Turkey". World People's Blog.
4. (20 April 2004). "European Court of Human Rights (28298/95) - Court (Second Section) - Judgment (Merits and Just Satisfaction) - Case of Buldan v. Turkey".
5. [http://www.kovan.ceng.metu.edu.tr/~erol/ses/susurluk/Susurluk__Mit_Raporu.html Report] {{webarchive. link. (13 August 2010 on the [[Susurluk scandal]])
6. link. (18 April 2013 Retrieved 21 March 2015.)
7. (December 2005). "La Fondation du Yakar-Der". ICAD.
8. (22 November 2004). "International Conference on Turkey, the Kurds and the EU". EU Turkey Civil Commission.
9. Zengin, Nilüfer. (30 January 2007). "Meet Our Women Parliamentarians".
10. (25 March 2008). "Turkey: DTP deputy Pervin Buldan faces investigation". Kurd Net.
11. (8 April 2010). "Turkish MPs Raising Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant Issue". Armenians Net.
12. (10 October 2013). "BDP's visit to Öcalan takes place without Demirtaş". Hurriyet Daily News.
13. ONLINE, ZEIT. (2018-02-12). "Türkei: Behörden ermitteln gegen neue HDP-Chefin". Die Zeit.
14. "24 Haziran İstanbul seçim sonuçları 2018! Cumhurbaşkanlığı ve milletvekili İstanbul ili oy oranları".
15. (24 February 2020). "Pervin Buldan, Mithat Sancar Elected New HDP Co-Chairs".
16. (2021-03-18). "Turkish prosecutor seeks political ban on 687 pro-Kurdish politicians".
17. Şafak, Yeni. (2023-09-06). "Van Seçim Sonuçları - 2023 Genel Seçim Van Oy Oranları {{!}} CANLI".
18. (22 March 2023). "Swing vote in hand, HDP's alliance will not put up candidate for Turkey's presidential election".
19. (2023-03-20). "Kılıçdaroğlu meets with HDP co-chairs, says parliament is the address of Kurdish issue".