Zeynep Sağıroğlu! One woman can change the entire earthquake zone!

From being Türkan Saylan’s close protection officer to becoming the CHP mayoral candidate for Hatay’s Kırıkhan district… 37-year-old Zeynep Sağıroğlu has become a role model not only for the people and youth of Kırıkhan, but for everyone in the earthquake zone who is resisting to rebuild their lives.

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She is very different from the mayoral candidates we are accustomed to. She is not popular, she is not famous, and she is certainly not rich. Her father is a farmer. She is the youngest of five children. She was able to study thanks to the great sacrifices of her parents, who valued education. She proudly recounts how the needle lace her mother crafted on the edges of headscarves contributed significantly to her education in Istanbul. There is one more thing she is proud of: Being from Kırıkhan!

While working as a police officer, she prepared for the Law School entrance exams. She was accepted into Istanbul University Faculty of Law with a high score. But her greatest stroke of luck was getting to know Türkan Saylan closely.

“When I handed her my duty assignment, Türkan Hoca looked at me from under her glasses, smiled, and said, ‘Which one of us will protect the other?’”

Zeynep Sağıroğlu, who was 20 when she took on the role of Türkan Saylan’s close protection officer, is 37 today. While working as a freelance lawyer in Istanbul, she made a radical decision driven by longing for her hometown. In January 2023, she left Istanbul and settled in Kırıkhan, Hatay. She began volunteering as a coach for young people preparing for university and high school exams. She taught courses on values and motivation. She was in Kırıkhan when the major earthquake struck.

I first learned about her through an Instagram live broadcast she made on the morning of February 6, saying, “My family and I are fine, but my hometown is in ruins.”

Zeynep Sağıroğlu was one of the first to report the massive destruction to Turkey. She described the scale of the devastation while crying, moving from one end of Kırıkhan to the other. Like a reporter on a live broadcast, she reported on the status of places vital to human life, such as hospitals, the municipality, and health centers, and issued calls for humanitarian aid. In the following days, she went to the villages of Kırıkhan, identified which health centers remained intact, and made broadcasts urging authorities to send doctors, midwives, and nurses to these urgent health facilities.

I began following Zeynep Sağıroğlu closely after she conducted breathing, meditation, and awareness training for earthquake survivors living in tent cities in Altınözü, saying, “We will provide education under any circumstances.” She never stopped.

“It is possible to live in a system managed by people who have awakened to their own power, using the lessons we learned from the great destruction,” she said, as she announced her candidacy for mayor of Kırıkhan. She has no money, nor does she make grand promises of rent-seeking. Her greatest dream is to create a reliable, happy city with a solid infrastructure, based on a social state understanding, after undergoing geological surveys, with a heart full of love for Turkey and a focus on youth and children.

She also has a promise: If elected mayor, she will continue the training she provides to children and young people.

“She says, ‘Each of us needs to remember our own power. The earthquake awakened the sleeping giant within me. That is why I am trying to reach everyone.’”

One day, she meets with women in the village of Bektaşlı after the tarawih prayer and the subsequent tasbihat prayer at the mosque. Another day, she provides motivation training to women working in the fields. “If our women are empowered, everything will move forward much more easily,” she says.

She is different from the politician figures we are used to. She is determined to heal the wounds of her fellow citizens in the earthquake zone, traveling over mountains and hills on her motorcycle. Like other earthquake survivors, she lives in a container.

With gray hairs already appearing… A young woman,

Recalling Atatürk’s words, “He who loves his country is the one who does his duty best,” and emphasizing that the earthquake zone needs people who do their jobs best, she set out for Kırıkhan.

Keep the name of this young mayoral candidate in your memory—a woman of her word, a bit crazy by her own admission, but very courageous.

Zeynep Sağıroğlu!

One woman can change the entire earthquake zone!