Ekin Deligöz

Born in Tokat, Turkey, Ekin's family moved to West Germany in 1979. She attended school in Weißenhorn and afterwards partook in Administrative Studies in Konstanz and Vienna earning a degree in 1998. In February 1997, she acquired German citizenship.[1]

Deligöz joined the Greens as a student member and belonged to the Bavaria chapter of the Greens' youth organization. She entered the Bundestag in 1998, and was re-elected in 2002, 2005 and 2009. Deligöz was re-elected for the fourth time into the federal parliament following the 2013 election. She is one of the eleven politicians of Turkish descent who won a seat in the federal parliament, including seven women.[2]

Between 2002 and 2005, Deligöz served as Chief Whip of the Green Party’s parliamentary group. From 2009 until 2013, she part of the group’s leadership around co-chairs Renate Künast and Jürgen Trittin.[2] In this capacity, she was part of a series of round table talks in 2010 and 2011 to tackle a wave of child sexual abuse cases, including numerous allegations of abuse in the Roman Catholic Church; the talks were jointly chaired by ministers Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Annette Schavan, and Kristina Schröder.[3]

A member of the Budget Committee and as deputy chairwoman of the Audit Committee since 2013, Deligöz has served as her parliamentary group's rapporteur on the annual budgets of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS); the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); the Federal Ministry of Health (2013-2017); the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ); the Office of the Federal President (since 2013); the Federal Foreign Office (since 2018); and the Federal Court of Auditors (since 2018)

• Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie, Member of the Board
• German Association for Public and Private Welfare
• German Committee for UNICEF, Member of the Board

When Deligöz voted in a favor of a symbolic resolution in 2016 that labels the 1915 killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces "genocide", a description that Turkey strongly rejects, she became one of eleven MPs of Turkish origin who received increased police protection and further security measures for both their professional and private activities.[4] Also, Germany's Federal Foreign Office warned her against travelling to Turkey because her safety could not be guaranteed after statements by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan suggesting that German lawmakers of Turkish origin had "tainted blood".[5]

Deligöz is married with two children.

• Turks in Germany

• Personal site
• Ekin Deligöz Bundestag profile
• Her works at the German National Library

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