Nilüfer Elik Yılmaz

Nilüfer Elik Yılmaz
Mayor of Kızıltepe
In office
March 2019 – November 2019
Succeeded byHüseyin Cam
Personal details
Born1962
Mardin
Political partyPeoples' Democratic Party

Nilüfer Elik Yılmaz (born 1962, Mardin, Turkey) is a Turkish politician and a former member of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and Mayor of Kiziltepe for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Education

Nilüfer Elik Yılmaz received her primary and secondary education and attended high school in Kiziltepe.[1] Following, she began to study economics at the Anadolu University in Eskisehir, but did not graduate.[1]

Political career

She was a member of the women's assembly of the BDP.[1] Additionally she took a seat in the disciplinary council of the parties Madrid branch.[1] In the local elections in March 2019, she was elected as a mayor of Kiziltepe for the HDP with more than 70% of the voter-share.[2][3] During her tenure, the municipality supported the local football club.[4] She was dismissed from office in November 2019[3] on grounds of her activities in the Democratic Society Congress (DTK)[1] which was viewed as an indication of a membership in the forbidden Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).[5] The ministry of the interior replaced her with the state appointed trustee Hüseyin Cam, who assumed as an acting mayor in her stead.[6][7] The same months, she was arrested and imprisoned in prison in Mardin.[1] Later she was transferred into a prison in Tarsus.[8] 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.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "HDP's Kızıltepe District Co-Mayor Nilüfer Elik Yılmaz Arrested". Bianet. 16 December 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  2. ^ Şafak, Yeni (2021-12-29). "Mardin Kızıltepe Seçim Sonuçları – Kızıltepe Yerel Seçim Sonuçları". Yeni Şafak (in Turkish). Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  3. ^ a b Schneider, Anna-Sophie (2019-11-06). "Kurdische Bürgermeister in der Türkei verlieren ihr Amt - und oft ihre Freiheit". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  4. ^ "Mayor accuses Kızıltepe football team of being PKK members, cuts financial support". Gazete Duvar. 2019-12-18. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  5. ^ "Mayor of Mardin's Kızıltepe district dismissed from duty over terror investigation - Turkey News". Hürriyet. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  6. ^ "Hüseyin Çam kimdir? Kızıltepe Belediyesi kayyum ataması son dakika - Yeni Akit". www.yeniakit.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  7. ^ "Turkey removes 15th pro-Kurdish mayor since March over alleged terror links". ipa news. 2019-11-05. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  8. ^ Oke, Naz (2020-01-08). "Prisoner deportations, the common practice in Turkey". Kedistan. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  9. ^ "HDP indictment seeks political ban for 687 members, including Demirtaş, Buldan and Sancar". Bianet. 17 March 2021.