Gurbetelli Ersöz

Gurbetelli Ersöz (1965, Palu, Elazığ– 8 October 1997, South Kurdistan) was a chemist, journalist and later also member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Biography Gurbetelli was born in Palu, Elazığ, and studied chemistry at the University. Later she worked as an assistant at the Çukurova University. As a chemist, she calls the Chernobyl catastrophe of 1986 and the chemical attack in Halabja in 1988 two major events turning points in her life. Following, she began to get involved politically, she wanted to make a change. Due to her political activities, She stayed in prison for two years. During the trial the prosecutor demanded up to 15 years imprisonment. She was sentenced to 3 Years and 9 months imprisonment but released in June 1994. She was killed in combat on the 8 October 1997.

Legacy Gurbetelli is seen as a proficient journalist in the Kurdish society and within the Musa Anter and Free Press Martyrs Journalism Awards of the Free Journalists Association of Turkey, there exists a Gurbetelli Award in her memory. To the award ceremony of 2016, several politicians of the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) attended. The Press Academy of the PKK also bears her name. The visual artist Banu Cennetoğlu presented an art work about her diary at the Documenta 14 in Athens. Her diary was published in Germany in 1998 and called I Engraved My Heart into the Mountains and in 2014 the book was also published in Turkey, but soon after the book was banned by the Turkish authorities.