Leyla Zana

Leyla Zana

"On 20-Oct-1991 Leyla Zana became the first Kurdish woman ever elected to the Turkish parliament...

"During Turkey's EU application review process, EU diplomats called repeatedley for Zana's release. Eventually, the Turkish courts saw fit to overturn the conviction on a technicality and in June 2004 Zana and four other Democratic Party MP's were released."

In 1998 "In February, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck visited one of the former DEP deputies, Leyla Zana, in prison; she is serving a fifteen-year term largely for speeches she had made."