Behice Boran

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Behice Boran was the leader of the socialist Workers Party of Turkey (TIP) from 1970 until her death in 1987; she was Turkey's first female political party leader.

Boran was born in 1910 in the Turkish city of Bursa. She studied sociology in the US and was introduced to Marxism in these years. Returning to her homeland after receiving her PhD, she began teaching sociology in an Ankara university. She also joined the clandestine Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) and began publishing left-wing periodicals which led to her sacking from the university. In 1950, she led the formation of the Turkish Peace-lovers Association which protested against Turkey's participation the Korean War, which led to her arrest and a sentence of 15 months in prison.

Between 1965-69, Boran served as one of TIP's deputies in the parliament. In 1970, she assumed the leadership of the party. She was arrested after the military coup of 1971 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. After she was released following an amnesty, she re-establihed the TIP in 1975.

After the military coup of 1980, Boran went into exile in Europe, living as a political refugee in Sofia, Brussels and Düsseldorf. In 1987, she announced that TIP and TKP had decided to merge. She died soon after this press conference from a heart disease in Brussels. Her body was brought to Istanbul and her funeral turned into a mass demonstration, the first public show of force of Turkey's left-wing movement after the coup.