Birsel Lemke

Birsel Lemke ( born July 4, 1950 in Istanbul) is a Turkish political scientist and human rights activist.

From 1975 to 1985 she lived in Germany. From 1987 to 1990 she was a member of the Green Party in Turkey, in 1990 she founded the Citizens' Initiative HAYIR ( "no") for gold mining projects on the Turkish Aegean coast. Under the motto " olives are our gold " protested HAYIR against the destruction of millennia-old cultural landscape.

For their " long-lasting fight to protect their country from destruction by the mining of gold with cyanide use " Birsel Lemke 2000 with the Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize ) was awarded.

Birsel Lemke is married to the German Jochen Lemke; the actress Ayşe Romey is her daughter.

Ezra Controversy

The distribution of the key novel Esra (2003) by Maxim Biller, containing biographical details of Lemke and Romey, was legally prohibited, as Romey could enforce their claim for injunctive relief. On 13 February 2008 the District Court of Munich I denounced the author and the publisher Kiepenheuer & Petrovich, in which the book was published, to pay 50,000 euros in compensation to his former girlfriend Ayse Romey. This decision was overturned by the Supreme Court in November 2009. Consequently, the book remains banned, but the author and the publisher must pay any damages.