He is currently serving as an MP in the Turkish Grand Assembly with the Republican People's Party (CHP).

[3] He is also defender of the press freedom in Turkey, and released a report which criticized the closing down of media outlets and the imprisonment of journalists.

[10] On 25 April 2022, Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation on Tanrıkulu over "insulting Turkishness" after he called for remembrance of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals that were forcibly disappeared on 24 April, the Armenian genocide remembrance day.

[11] In 1997, he received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award[12] along with fellow attorney Senal Sarihan.

This is an award given each year to an individual whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy's vision and legacy.