Nuriye Kesbir
Nuriye Kesbir is a Yazidi member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, and in 2001 she was arrested upon her arrival at the Shiphol Airport in the Netherlands and following Turkey demanded her extradition for alleged war crimes. The Dutch Minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner initially wanted to allow the extradition but Kesbir challenged the decision in the courts. The Human Rights Watch, in an open letter to Piet Hein Donner, demanded that the Netherlands withhold from an extradition to Turkey due to concerns she might be tortured. Other human rights organizations, including the United Nations also appealed to the Dutch Government to halt the extradition. On the 20 January 2005 a court in the Netherlands decided not to extradite her due to concerns she would be tortured in Turkish detention and Kesbir was released the same day. After her release the Dutch Government challenged the ruling appealed at the Supreme Court. In September 2005 the Turkish Government asked the United States to include Nuriye Kesbir in their joint efforts to contain the PKK activity in Western Europe. After her request for asylum in the Netherlands was halted, she returned to Iraq. In 2013, she was elected as one of the six members of the presidential council of the Kurdistan Union of Communities. She is a defender of the rights of the Yazidi and the philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan. Annegriet Wietsma produced a movie about her called "Sozdar, she who lives her promise".
