Ayla Akat Ata


Ayla Akat Ata is a Kurdish politician of the Peace and Democracy Party in Batman, Turkey.

Professional career

Ata was born in Diyarbakır. Since graduating from the Faculty of Law at Dicle University in Diyarbakır, she has been working as a lawyer.
She is a member of the Turkish Human Rights Association, and defender of women's rights.
In July 2007, she stood as an independent candidate in the Turkish parliamentary elections and entered the Turkish Parliament, joining the Democratic Society Party.
In September 2007, she and Aysel Tuğluk were charged with “conducting propaganda for an outlawed organization” and “aiding and abetting a terrorist organization.”
She was a defense lawyer for Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the PKK.
After the DTP was banned on 11 December 2009, she joined the Peace and Democracy Party.
She was re-elected in the 12 June 2011 general election. In January 2013 she was involved in the peace process between the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Turkish Government and met with Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı together with Ahmet Türk.
On the 26 October 2016, she was detained and later arrested while attending a protest against the dismissal of the Co-Mayors Gültan Kışanak and Fırat Anlı and accused of "managing a terrorist organization". She was released on the 4 May 2017. She was arrested again in February 2018 for a speech she gave in relation of Kamber Moroç who had died as Turkish soldiers opened fire on a bus. In this case she was released in May 2018.