After graduating from Pazarcık high school, Kurtulan worked on social projects in the Küçükdikili municipality in Adana.
A former president of the women's branch of People's Democracy Party (HADEP),[1] in July 2007, Kurtulan stood as an independent candidate in the Turkish parliamentary elections and entered the Turkish Parliament (Grand National Assembly of Turkey).
On 9 November 2007 the Turkish chief public prosecutor launched an investigation into her activities, after she visited Iraq with two other DTP politicians to obtain the release of eight Turkish soldiers held by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) forces.
[2] The prosecutor requested that the Turkish Parliament remove the parliamentary immunity of all three MPs.
In the same month she admitted being married to a PKK member, adding that her husband, Samlan Kurtulan, who the media reported to be in a PKK guerrilla camp in northern Iraq, had been away for 13 years and that she remained married only on paper.