| Leyla Birlik | |
| Assembly: | Turkish Grand National |
| Term Start1: | 7 June 2015 |
| Term End1: | 1 November 2015 |
| Term Start2: | 1 November 2015 |
| Term End2: | 24 June 2018 |
| Birth Date: | 3 March 1974 |
| Citizenship: | Turkish |
| Spouse: | Mehmet Birlik |
| Children: | 1 |
| Residence: | Germany |
| Profession: | politician |
Leyla Birlik (born 3 March 1974, Derik, Mardin) is a Kurdish politician of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and a former member of the Gran National Assembly of Turkey.[1] She is currently a member of the executive council[2] and the head of the Women Committee in the Kurdistan National Congress.[3]
Before she became a Member of Parliament she served as the president of the local council in Şırnak. Birlik was elected to the Turkish parliament in the general elections in June 2015[4] and re-elected in the snap elections of November 2015 both times representing Şırnak for the HDP.[5]
She was arrested on the 4 November 2016 together with fellow HDP MPs Nursel Aydoğan, Selahattin Demirtaş, İdris Baluken, Figen Yüksekdag and Gülser Yildirim.[6] She was charged with having insulted the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a speech she held in 2015[7] or having attended the funeral of her brother in law, who the prosecution sees as a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).[8] European parliamentarians from Austria around Peter Pilz, were not allowed to visit her at the time by the Turkish authorities.[9] She was released pending trial on the 4 January 2017.[10] [11] The same court also issued also a prohibition on travels abroad. In January 2018 she was sentenced to 1 year and 9 months imprisonment for insulting the president. She appealed the verdict.
In August 2018, she fled to Oristiada, Greece and applied for asylum. In December she was sentenced to a prison term again, this time for violating a law concerning on meetings and manifestations.[12] From Greece she traveled on to Germany where she also applied for asylum and it was granted. It was reported that a file with informations about her was confiscated by the Turkish authorities following the arrest of the lawyer of the German Embassy.[13]
She is married to Mehmet Birlik[14] and has a child.[15] Her first term as an MP was marked by the fact that her brother in law Hacı Lokman Birlik[16] was killed by Turkish security forces, tied to a police car and dragged through the streets of Şırnak on in October 2015.[17] The father of Haci Lokman Birlik was later prosecuted for attending his sons funeral.[16]