Ayşe Gökkan

Ayşe Gökkan (born 1965 in Kulince, Sanliurfa) is a Kurdish journalist, feminist, spokeswoman of the Free Women Movement (TJA) and a former Mayor of Nusaybin. As a journalist, she has been active in news outlets such as Özgür Gündem or Azadiya Welat. Gökkan was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment on grounds that she was a leader and a member of a terror organization in October 2021.

Political career She was an active member of the People's Labour Party (HEP), the Democracy Party (DEP), the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) and the Democratic Society Party (DTP). As Mayor of Nusaybin she opposed the construction of the border wall between the pro-Kurdish administration in Rojava and Turkey in 2013.

Human rights activist In February 2020, she was elected as the new spokeswoman of the TJA. In June 2023, she filed a criminal complaint against Hakan Fidan, the former Director of the National Intelligence Organization and other public officials who protected a commander of the Ahrar al Sharqiya who graduated from the Artuklu University in Mardin in June 2023.

In November 2023, she was awarded a recognition prize of CHF 10,000 by the Swiss Paul Grüninger Foundation for her activities as a journalist and activist for women's rights.

Legal prosecution According to a news-statement from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Gökkan has been detained for more than 80 times. She was detained again in January 2021 In October 2021, Gökkan was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment on grounds that she was a leader and a member of a terror organization. According to the International Federation of Human Rights, she was not permitted to defend herself in the Kurdish language during the trial and her lawyers abstained of preparing a defense in the last hearing because they and representatives of the Diyarbakir Bar Association were assaulted and mistreated by the police present in the courtroom in a past hearing.