İbrahim Ayhan

İbrahim Ayhan
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office January 2014 – February 2018
Constituency	Şanlıurfa (2011, June 2015, Nov 2015)
Personal details
Born	(1968-02-10)10 February 1968 Siverek, Turkey
Died	20 September 2018(2018-09-20) (aged 50) Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq
Political party	Peace and Democracy Party (2008–2014) Peoples' Democratic Party (2014–2018)
Other political affiliations	Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK)
Alma mater	Yüzüncü Yıl University

İbrahim Ayhan (10 February 1968 – 20 September 2018) was a Turkish politician of Kurdish origin and a former Member of Parliament for Şanlıurfa.

Personal life and professional career

Born in Siverek, Şanlıurfa, he graduated from the Yüzüncü Yıl University in Van in 1992.[1] After he worked as a teacher. From 1997 to 2007, he was an executive and chairperson of the Education and Science Workers' Union in Urfa.[1] He was married with two children.[2]

Political career and legal prosecution

On 5 October 2010, he was arrested as part of an investigation into the Kurdish confederalist Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) organisation.[3] After he became an independent candidate and was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Sanliurfa in the general elections of 2011.[4] A court in Diyarbakır refused to release several elected independent MPs, as was also Ayhan.[5] He appealed to the Constitutional Court, claiming that the legally allowed detention time had been exceeded and his right to stand in elections had been violated.[6] He was released alongside the imprisoned MP Gülser Yıldırım on 3 January 2014, enabling them to take the oath.[7] On 28 August 2014, he joined the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentary caucus along with all other BDP MPs. He was re-elected in the general elections of June[8] and November 2015.[9] In February 2018 he was dismissed as Member of Parliament for having shown solidarity with a killed fighter from the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG).[10] He was sentenced to 1 year and 3 months imprisonment for sharing a photograph a fighter killed in Syrian Kurdistan, which was interpreted as terror propaganda.[1] On the 20 September 2018 Ayhan died due to a heart attack he suffered in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan.[3]

References

1. "Politician İbrahim Ayhan Loses His Life". Bianet. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
2. "Türki̇ye Büyük Mi̇llet Mecli̇si̇".
3. Editorial Staff (2018-09-21). "Turkey's Kurdish MP Ibrahim Ayhan dies of heart attack". Kurd Net - Ekurd.net Daily News. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
4. "ŞANLIURFA 2011 GENEL SEÇİM SONUÇLARI". secim.haberler.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
5. "Diyarbakır courts reject release of jailed deputies - Turkey News". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
6. "Tutuklu BDP'li vekiller için tahliye kararı". Radikal (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-12-30.
7. "Turkish court orders jailed Kurdish lawmakers be freed". Reuters. 2014-01-03. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
8. "ŞANLIURFA 2015 GENEL SEÇİM SONUÇLARI". secim.haberler.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
9. "ŞANLIURFA SEÇİM SONUÇLARI - 1 KASIM 2015 GENEL SEÇİM SONUÇLARI". secim.haberler.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
10. Kurdistan24. "Kurdish MPs ousted from Turkey Parliament over convictions, insulting Erdogan". Kurdistan24. Retrieved 2020-01-08.