Meet Our Women Parliamentarians

For the next five years, we will have 49 women in parliament. However, we hope that these women will not be the "angels of parliament", as the Hürriyet newspaper termed them.

They will add the women's perspective and the existence of women to politics and will thus create a different, more profound, political atmosphere.

29 AKP deputies

Among the 29 female deputies of the Justice and Development Party(AKP) there are lawyers and academics, but also pharmacists, chartered accountants, architects, landscape architects and engineers.

Özlem Piltanoglu Türköne, MP for Istanbul's first constituency, has been a district governer (kaymakam), the official in charge of a district. Nursuna Memecan, from the same constituency is a publisher. Then there is also Aysenur Bahcekapili, a lawyer known for her leftist leanings.

What many of the AKP deputies have in common is their long-term involvement in the party organisation.

10 in the CHP

In the Republican People's Party (CHP) five women are no strangers to parliament: Nevin Gaye Erbatur, Nesrin Baytok, Birgen Keles, Canan Artiman and Özlem Cercioglu have been MPs before.

There are five more parliamentarians, a total of 10 women in the CHP.

Among the new additions are Necla Arat and Nur Serter both professors at Istanbul University and organisers of the "Republican Rallies".

Another interesting name is Güldal Mumcu, the widow of murdered journalist Ugur Mumcu and founder of the Ugur Mumcu Research and Journalism Foundation.

MHP: 2 out of 70

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is sending two women into parliament among its 70 candidates. One of them is Meral Aksener a former Minister of the Interior. She was in office when the Susurluk scandal happened, a car accident which revealed connections between a parliamentarian, the police and the "deep state".

The second is Senol Bal an academic.

Eight "Thousand Hope" MPs

The remaining eight women are "Thousand Hope" candidates supported by the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). These are:

Ayla Akad Ata (31): MP for Batman, south-eastern Turkey. Ata is a lawyer and a former chairperson of the Diyarbakır branch of the Human Rights Association.

Aysel Tugluk (42): MP for Diyarbakir, south-eastern Turkey. Tugluk is a lawyer, too, and has always been involved in political cases.

Gülten Kisanak (46): MP for Diyarbakir. While at university, she was arrested under the military regime of the 1980 coup. She was in prison for three years, after which she studied journalism. From 1991 until 2003 she worked as a journalist. Since 2003, she has been a social project advisor at a Diyarbakir municipality.

Pervin Buldan (40). MP for Igdir, eastern Turkey. Her husband Savas Buldan was killed in 1994. Buldan has been a member of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HADEP) and the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP). She has been president of the Association for the Support of and Solidarity With Families Who Have Lost Relatives (YAKAY-DER).

Emine Ayna (39): MP for Mardin, south-eastern Turkey. Founder of the Rainbow Women's Association.

Sevahir Bayindir (38): MP for Şırnak, eastern Turkey. A nurse, she has been a leading member of HADEP.

Fatma Kurtulan (43) MP for Van, eastern Turkey. She has been involved in HADEP and has been the president of the women's branch. She has been a member of the DTP's party parliament.

Sebahat Tuncel (32): MP for Istanbul. A map technician and involved in HADEP and DTP. Her story has attracted attention because she was elected when detained in prison. (NZ/AG)