Sezgin Tanrıkulu

Sezgin Tanrıkulu (born 27 May 1963) is a Turkish human rights lawyer known for his defense of the rights of Kurdish citizens. He is currently serving as an MP in the Turkish Grand Assembly with the Republican People's Party (CHP).

Early life and education Tanrıkulu is from Diyarbakır, Turkey. He attended law school in Istanbul, graduating in 1984. When he returned to Diyarbakır, he found it under emergency rule by the Turkish government and its mayor Mehdi Zana, husband of politician Leyla Zana, charged with separatism. Tanrıkulu became involved in Zana's case and soon became a full-time human rights lawyer. He was indicted several times for his legal activities. In 1994, he was charged with "insulting the judiciary" after he appealed a conviction that had relied on a statement extracted by torture. From 1990 to 1995, six of his friends and colleagues were murdered for their work on human rights cases.

Political career Sezgin Tanrıkulu joined the Republican People's Party (CHP) in 2010, becoming the CHP director of Human Rights He was re-elected each time and currently is still a member of parliament. In parliament he defended the minority rights and the human rights of the prisoners. He opposed the arrest of the academics for peace who signed a petition urging for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict in 2016. In September 2020, it was reported that Tanrıkulu was appointed the advisor to party leader Kemal Kılıcdaroğlu.

Prosecution An investigation was launched for degrading the Turkish Republic for his remarks where he made public his opposition towards the Turkish military operation into Syria in October 2019.

On 25 April 2022, Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation on Tanrıkulu over "insulting Turkishness" after he called for remembrance of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals that were forcibly disappeared on 24 April, the Armenian genocide remembrance day.

Awards In 1997, he received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award along with fellow attorney Senal Sarihan. This is an award given each year to an individual whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy's vision and legacy.