Leyla İmret

Leyla İmret (born 1987) is a Turkish politician of Kurdish origin. She grew up in Germany but returned to her home country in 2013 and was elected mayor of Cizre on 31 March 2014. She was dismissed from her position by the government on 11 September 2015 after the siege of Cizre during the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. She eventually fled to Germany where she has continued to speak out against human rights abuses in the region. She is the subject of a 2017 documentary film, Dil Leyla and winner of the ILHR's 2018 Carl von Ossietzky Medal.

Early life and education Leyla İmret was born in June 1987 in Cizre in Turkey's southeastern province of Şırnak. Her father was killed in the conflict between security forces and the PKK when she was four and her family fled to Mersin in 1992. The BDP had a 40% quota for female representation and introduced a co-candidate system, where an elected leader and deputy would take equal roles and work together, which saw an increase in the numbers of women elected to district and municipal leadership. İmret was one of a number of women elected to a mayoral position across the country, and pledged to prioritise women's issues. She said, "It gives women courage to see me as mayor. More women and youth will get involved in politics." She planned to help create a normal life for the community, building parks and playgrounds and "giving children a chance to have the childhood she never had."

Although İmret's mother was skeptical and worried about her daughter's political involvement, things went well at first. At the time, İmret was reported as saying, "There's a saying, 'if there's peace, it will start from Cizre, and if there's war, it will start from here as well.' And we can say we have a civil war in Turkey." The government claimed the HDP was linked to the PKK. İmret said, "The main difference between the HDP and the PKK is that the former is a political party aiming to participate in the electoral process at the national level ... In Cizre, there is a strong support for the PKK, but the population wants the conflict to end. Nobody wants the situation of war from the 90s to start again. The HDP offers this perspective of peace."

Dismissal and detention İmret was dismissed from her position as mayor by the Ministry of Interior on 12 September 2015, one of many pro-Kurdish local politicians stripped of their offices including the HDP's co-chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş and 80 mayors. This attracted criticism from the region and Western countries. She was replaced by a government appointed administration through a state of emergency decree.

İmret was detained in November 2015, and feared killed in a siege in December after she left a message on social media saying tanks had surrounded the town, her home was being shelled and she was ready for death. In January 2016, she was arrested and accused of terrorist propaganda in connection with an interview she gave to US based Vice News. İmret says her meaning was "completely distorted" and others said the quote was "mistranslated."

İmret was later released but banned from leaving the country, however she fled Turkey by going to the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq and then to Germany, where she applied for and received political asylum in 2017.

İmret is the subject of the 2017 German documentary Dil Leyla by Asli Ozarslan, filmed while she was in hiding in Turkey.

Life in Germany İmret is one of two co-chairs of HDP Germany. She visits Kurds in exile and has testified before the European Human Rights Court about the attacks in Cizre. On 28 March 2018, she spoke at a session titled "Mayors under Pressure" of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

In 2018, the International League for Human Rights (Berlin) awarded the Carl von Ossietzky Medal to İmret for her "courageous struggle for Kurdish rights". The ILHR said "In exile, she continues to fight fearfully for her return to the mayor's office, where she has been democratically elected, and courageously continues to promote human rights in Turkey, as well as a peaceful and righteous solution to the Kurdish question." She shared the award with German social worker and human rights activist Ottmar Miles Paul. İmret said she dedicated the award to "those who lost their lives in the struggle for free Kurdistan, especially those who lost their lives during the resistance in Cizre" and to Democratic Society Party co-chair Leyla Güven, who was in prison in Diyarbakır.