Leyla
Zana was the first Kurdish woman elected to the parliament in Turkey. After taking
her parliamentary oath in the Turkish Parliament in 1991, she spoke Kurdish, which
was against the law, and for the next 3 years in Parliament continued to speak
out for a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish peoples' struggle for human rights
and freedom. For these actions, in 1994 she was arrested and faced the death penalty
for treason. Amnesty International declared her a Prisoner of Conscience, and
led a worldwide call for Leyla Zana's release. International pressure forced the
Turkish government not to implement the death penalty, but Leyla Zana was sentenced
to 15 years in prison.
Leyla Zana was awarded the 1994 Rafto Prize for human rights, and the next year
was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament and the German Aachen
Prize but she was unable to collect any of these awards until she was released
in 2004. In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Turkish government
had violated her human rights. After her release from prison, Leyla Zana and others
formed a new political party, the Movement for a Democratic Society, which is
focused on supporting the process of Turkey’s joining the European Union and working
for a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question. Leyla Zana is
now openly calling for Turkey to be divided into states, including the State of
Kurdistan. In 2005 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the
1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize project.
