Mizgin Irgat | |
---|---|
Member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey | |
In office June 2015 –June 2018 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1978 (age 45–46) Tatvan |
Political party | HDP |
Alma mater | Dicle University |
Mizgin Irgat (born 1978 in Tatvan, Turkey) is a Turkish lawyer and politician of Kurdish origin. She is a member of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and a former member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
She attended primary education in Tatvan, but was exiled to Izmir in 1993 where she completed her studies in a local high school. [1] After having graduated from the law faculty of the Dicle University in Diyarbakir in 2003, she became a lawyer in Izmir. [2] In December 2011 she was arrested and prosecuted in one of the so-called KCK-trials, the one against the lawyers of Abdullah Öcalan. [3] She was detained in prison in Bakirköy, Istanbul. [4] For the release of these lawyers, several Human Rights organizations such as the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) [5] the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) [6] and lawyer unions [7] [4] have taken action. She was released pending trial in June 2013. [8]
She was the Democratic Society Party (DTP) candidate for the mayorship of Konak in Izmir in 2009 [1] but was not elected. In the General Elections of June 2015, Irgat was elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey representing the HDP for Bitlis. [9] In the snap elections of November 2015, she was re-elected. [10] As an MP she has taken up the defense of the rights of the deceased, condemning the destruction of graveyards by Turkish authorities. [11]
While acting as an MP, she was detained and prosecuted. [12] She has taken part in a meeting of HDP MPs in Izmir during which on actions of the PKK were referred to as peoples' struggle, which was enough evidence for a prosecution for terror related charges of several MPs. [13] [14] Irgat also shall have referred to Öcalan as a captive and a political entity. [15] On the 17 March 2021, the state prosecutor Bekir Şahin demanded for her and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban to engage in politics together with a closure of the HDP due to alleged organizational cooperation with the PKK. [16] [17]
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