Gökay Akbulut

Gökay Akbulut (born 16 November 1982) into a family of Kurdish Alevi background.

After graduating from high school in Hamburg, Akbulut studied political sciences, sociology and public law at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg from October 2003 until September 2008. While still studying at the University, Akbulut worked as a waitress and in a call-center to finance her studies. Later she worked as an educator in the field of education with underprivileged youth and refugees. From 2012 - 2016 she was an independent lecturer at the Mannheimer Abendakademie und Volkshochschule GmbH in Mannheim. In 2006 she worked in an office of The Left Party. At the German Parliament she represents her local electoral district Mannheim and is one out of six members of parliament from the federal state of Baden-Württemberg for The Left Party. Akbulut is the spokeswoman for migration and integration on behalf of the Left faction. She is a full member of the Committee for Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection and a deputy member of the Committee for Internal Affairs. Akbulut is also a full member of the European Law Subcommittee. She represents the Left faction in the German-Turkish as well as in the German-Greek Parliamentary Group of the German Parliament. Due to years of active work in Kurdish associations and her support for the Kurdish Movement, Akbulut is well connected all over Europe. In 2017 the press reported that Akbulut was under observation of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution because of her pro-Kurdish activism. She was accused of having been in contact with Kurdish organizations, who are allegedly associated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Akbulut is pressing charges against this observation, which supposedly started in 2007. She receives support for her legal resistance against this observation from her party The Left. Akbulut expressed criticism against Wagenknecht's controversial statements on the topics of migration and her engagement for her private campaign Aufstehen.

She is critical of the current political order in Germany and would like to see broader democratic possibilities. She'd prefer the economy would have to adapt more to the democracy instead that the democracy adapts to according to the economy. She is an opponent of the Turkish Government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.