The Most Famous
SOCIAL ACTIVISTS from Turkey
This page contains a list of the greatest Turkish Social Activists. The pantheon dataset contains 538 Social Activists, 11 of which were born in Turkey. This makes Turkey the birth place of the 11th most number of Social Activists behind South Africa and Italy.
Top 10
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Turkish Social Activists of all time. This list of famous Turkish Social Activists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Turkish Social Activists.
1. Hrant Dink (1954 - 2007)
With an HPI of 56.56, Hrant Dink is the most famous Turkish Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 46 different languages on wikipedia.
Hrant Dink (Armenian: Հրանտ Դինք; Western Armenian pronunciation: [ˈhɾantʰ ˈdiŋkʰ]; 15 September 1954 – 19 January 2007) was a Turkish-Armenian intellectual, editor-in-chief of Agos, journalist, and columnist. As editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, Dink was a prominent member of the Armenian minority in Turkey best known for advocating Turkish–Armenian reconciliation and human and minority rights in Turkey. He was often critical of both Turkey's denial of the Armenian genocide and of the Armenian diaspora's campaign for its international recognition. Dink was prosecuted three times for denigrating Turkishness, while receiving numerous death threats from Turkish nationalists. Dink was assassinated in Istanbul on 19 January 2007 by Ogün Samast, a 17-year-old Turkish nationalist. Dink was shot three times in the head dying instantly. Photographs of the assassin flanked by smiling Turkish police and gendarmerie, posing with the killer side by side in front of the Turkish flag, surfaced. The photos sparked a scandal in Turkey, prompting a spate of investigations and the removal from office of those involved. Samast was later sentenced to 22 years in prison by a Turkish court. He was released on parole for "good behaviour" on 15 November 2023, after spending 16 years and 10 months in prison. At Dink's funeral, over one hundred thousand mourners marched in protest of the assassination, chanting, "We are all Armenians" and "We are all Hrant Dink". Criticism of Article 301 became increasingly vocal after his death, leading to parliamentary proposals for repeal. The 2007–2008 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour.
2. Deniz Gezmiş (1947 - 1972)
With an HPI of 49.99, Deniz Gezmiş is the 2nd most famous Turkish Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Deniz Gezmiş (27 February 1947 – 6 May 1972) was a Turkish Marxist-Leninist revolutionary, student leader, and political activist in Turkey in the late 1960s. He was one of the founding members of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (THKO). He was born to an inspector of primary education and syndicalist Cemil Gezmiş and a primary school teacher Mukaddes Gezmiş. He was educated in various Turkish cities. He spent most of his childhood in Sivas, where his father grew up. He graduated from high school in Istanbul where he first encountered left wing ideas. Gezmiş and companions are considered by some as "Turkey's Che Guevara and compañeros".
3. İbrahim Kaypakkaya (1949 - 1973)
With an HPI of 47.37, İbrahim Kaypakkaya is the 3rd most famous Turkish Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.
İbrahim Kaypakkaya (1949 – May 18, 1973) was a Turkish Maoist, who founded the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML). He is revered by many today as a symbol of resistance and as an aggregator of the ideas of other major leaders and thinkers in Marxism–Leninism–Maoism. Kaypakkaya was captured after being wounded in an engagement with the Turkish military in Tunceli Province in 1973, and executed in Diyarbakir Prison four months later.
4. Sakine Cansız (1958 - 2013)
With an HPI of 45.85, Sakine Cansız is the 4th most famous Turkish Social Activist. Her biography has been translated into 21 different languages.
Sakine Cansız (Turkish pronunciation: [saːciˈne dʒanˈsɯz]; Kurdish: Sakîne Cansiz, IPA: [sɑːkiːnɛ dʒɑːnsɪz]; 1958 – 9 January 2013) was one of the co-founders of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). A Kurdish activist in the 1980s, she was arrested and tortured by Turkish police. A close associate of Abdullah Öcalan and a senior member of the PKK, she was shot dead during the triple murder of Kurdish activists in Paris, France, on 9 January 2013, along with two other female Kurdish activists, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Söylemez.
5. Aslı Erdoğan (1967 - )
With an HPI of 44.30, Aslı Erdoğan is the 5th most famous Turkish Social Activist. Her biography has been translated into 27 different languages.
Aslı Erdoğan (born 8 March 1967) is a prize-winning Turkish writer, author, human rights activist, and columnist for Özgür Gündem and formerly for Radikal, ex political prisoner, particle physicist. Her second novel has been published in English, and eight books translated into twenty languages. Aslı Erdoğan is a writer of literature and author of eight books, novels, novellas, collections of poetic prose and essays, translated into twenty languages including English, French, German, and published by various publishers such as Actes Sud, Penguin Germany, The City Lights among others. She has worked as a columnist in various national and international papers, and she was arrested in 2016 for her collaboration with the pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem. Aslı Erdoğan has received several prizes in literature, arts and human rights such as Simone de Beauvoir Prize or the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize. Her work has been adapted into theater and acted in Milan, Graz and Avignon, into classical ballet, radio, a short film and finally to opera. She is currently living in exile in Germany.
6. Eren Keskin (1959 - )
With an HPI of 40.08, Eren Keskin is the 6th most famous Turkish Social Activist. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Eren Keskin (born April 24, 1959 in Bursa, Turkey) is a Kurdish lawyer and human rights activist in Turkey. She is the vice-president of the Turkish Human Rights Association (İHD) and a former president of its Istanbul branch. She co-founded the project "Legal Aid For Women Who Were Raped Or Otherwise Sexually Abused by National Security Forces”, to expose abuses happening to women in Turkish prisons. She has been arrested, imprisoned, and the object of numerous lawsuits in relation to her human rights activities. In 1995 she was imprisoned for her activities and was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. In 2002 she was accused by Turkey's State Security of "aiding and abetting" the PKK because of her advocacy for Kurds to use their native language in Turkey. In March 2006 a Turkish court sentenced her to 10 months’ imprisonment for insulting the country's military. The sentence was then converted to a fine of 6000 New Turkish Liras, which Keskin refused to pay. From 2013 to 2016 Keskin was the editor in chief of the newspaper Özgür Gündem has been sentenced to a total of 7 years and 6 months together. In March 2018 she has been sentenced to 5 years and 3 months imprisonment for insulting the president and another 2 years and 3 months for "degrading Turkishness, the Republic, institutions and organs of the state" according to the Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. On 3 December 2021, Evrensel reported Keskin's home was raided by Turkish police.The raid was conducted to summon Keskin to account for a speech she delivered in Turkey’s southeastern Dersim province in 2019.
7. Mari Beyleryan (1877 - 1915)
With an HPI of 38.24, Mari Beyleryan is the 7th most famous Turkish Social Activist. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Mari Beyleryan (Armenian: Մառի Պեյլերյան; 23 March 1877 – 24 April 1915) was an Armenian feminist activist, writer, and public figure and a victim of the Armenian genocide.
8. Cenk Uygur (1970 - )
With an HPI of 26.91, Cenk Uygur is the 8th most famous Turkish Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Cenk Kadir Uygur (; Turkish: [ˈdʒeɲc kaˈdiɾ ˈujɡuɾ]; born March 21, 1970) is a Turkish-born American politician, political commentator, media host and a former presidential candidate. He is the co-creator of The Young Turks, a left-wing, progressive, sociopolitical news and commentary program. In 1996, Uygur worked briefly as an associate attorney. He launched and began hosting The Young Turks in 2002. In 2011, in addition he appeared briefly on MSNBC as a political commentator (he was replaced by Al Sharpton), and then from 2011 to 2013 he appeared on a weeknight commentary show on Current TV. In 2017, Uygur co-founded the progressive political action committee Justice Democrats. In 2020, Uygur was a candidate in both the special election as well as the regularly scheduled election for California's 25th congressional district. Uygur's candidacy was considered by some to be controversial due to his past comments about women, minority groups including the LGBTQ+ community, Asians, religious Jews and Muslims, and others, which were considered offensive but that he described as taken out of context. He ultimately lost both elections, being placed fourth overall and second amongst Democrats after receiving six and seven percent of the vote, respectively. Uygur announced his candidacy in the 2024 Democratic presidential primaries in October 2023, despite not being a natural-born U.S. citizen as required. He expected the requirement to be overturned by the courts in the event of his victory due to the Equal Protection clause, emulating an unsuccessful argument previously made by ineligible candidate Abdul Hassan, in 2012. Uygur withdrew from the race on March 6, 2024.
9. Murder of Özgecan Aslan (1995 - 2015)
With an HPI of 25.81, Murder of Özgecan Aslan is the 9th most famous Turkish Social Activist. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Özgecan Aslan (22 October 1995 – 11 February 2015) was a Turkish university student who was murdered while resisting attempted rape on 11 February 2015 on a minibus in Mersin, Turkey. Her burnt body was discovered on 13 February. The murder was committed by minibus driver Ahmet Suphi Altındöken, and his father Necmettin Altındöken and friend Fatih Gökçe were accomplices in covering up the murder. All perpetrators were handed aggravated life sentences without the possibility of parole. The murder caused nationwide outrage and sparked protests across the country on the following days. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in several provinces, with some criticizing the government for its "insufficient response" and alleged normalization of the rape of non-conservative women. The protests were described as the first mass movement for Turkish women. It also provoked calls for reforms to combat violence against women more effectively. The case received great attention on social media and prompted women to share their experiences of harassment, with 16 February being dubbed as "Black Monday" due to protests. The murder was described as a catalyst for women to speak out about their long-withheld suffering, but The Guardian expected also a rift between women who defend silence and patriarchal status quo and those refusing to keep quiet.
10. Saadet Özkan (1978 - )
With an HPI of 25.65, Saadet Özkan is the 10th most famous Turkish Social Activist. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Saadet Özkan (born 1978) is a Turkish activist against child abuse. She is a primary school teacher who found out that her pupils had been sexually abused by her principal. Despite pressure she succeeded in getting the crime investigated. She is an International Women of Courage Award recipient.
Pantheon has 11 people classified as social activists born between 1877 and 1995. Of these 11, 4 (36.36%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living social activists include Aslı Erdoğan, Eren Keskin, and Cenk Uygur. The most famous deceased social activists include Hrant Dink, Deniz Gezmiş, and İbrahim Kaypakkaya. As of April 2022, 4 new social activists have been added to Pantheon including Eren Keskin, Mari Beyleryan, and Cenk Uygur.
Living Social Activists
Go to all Rankings
Aslı Erdoğan
1967 - Present
HPI: 44.30
Eren Keskin
1959 - Present
HPI: 40.08
Cenk Uygur
1970 - Present
HPI: 26.91
Saadet Özkan
1978 - Present
HPI: 25.65
Deceased Social Activists
Go to all RankingsHrant Dink
1954 - 2007
HPI: 56.56
Deniz Gezmiş
1947 - 1972
HPI: 49.99
İbrahim Kaypakkaya
1949 - 1973
HPI: 47.37
Sakine Cansız
1958 - 2013
HPI: 45.85
Mari Beyleryan
1877 - 1915
HPI: 38.24
Murder of Özgecan Aslan
1995 - 2015
HPI: 25.81
Hande Kader
1993 - 2016
HPI: 24.47
Newly Added Social Activists (2022)
Go to all RankingsEren Keskin
1959 - Present
HPI: 40.08
Mari Beyleryan
1877 - 1915
HPI: 38.24
Cenk Uygur
1970 - Present
HPI: 26.91
Murder of Özgecan Aslan
1995 - 2015
HPI: 25.81
Which Social Activists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 6 most globally memorable Social Activists since 1700.
