The Women's Assembly of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) announced the launch of a campaign titled “We insist on a free and equal life, we are against wars”. The Women's Assembly held a press conference at the DEM Party Headquarters and announced the declaration on the campaign and its activities. In the declaration announced by DEM Party Amed MP Sevilay Çelenk, it was noted that panels, conferences and workshops will be organized within the scope of the campaign. 

 

The following statements were included in the declaration: “Anti-democratic, militarist, masculine and authoritarian governments that put their own survival and continuity above everything else try to justify war by presenting it as the result of an inevitable survival problem all over the world. But as world experiences and anti-war movements often remind us, wars are not inevitable and there are no winners. All wars leave a great wreckage behind. Wars are an attack on bodily integrity, the right to life and human dignity. Lives are lost, cities are destroyed, nature, history, culture and artistic heritage are irrevocably destroyed. It is not inevitable that this great suffering, this slaughter and this cruelty will be repeated again and again in the 21st century. Today, as the feeling that we are once again being dragged into a total war grows stronger all over the world and the signs in this direction multiply, the only inevitable thing is the necessity to organize a strong anti-war movement. This movement must be supported on a universal scale.

 

THE NECESSITY TO ORGANIZE FOR PEACE 

 

Unfortunately, although it is not difficult to explain that opposition to war and the strengthening of anti-war organizations is inevitable, it is very difficult to direct this opposition into channels of struggle and to put it into practice. As a matter of fact, the great destruction caused by the two great imperialist wars of division and the genocides that occurred simultaneously with these wars did not bring about a policy of absolute avoidance of wars. Fifty years after the great wars, the ethnic wars in Europe, in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, showed how quickly we can fall into the same horrible war agendas. The Rwandan Genocide, which took place around the same time, revealed with great clarity that the threat of war and genocide has not left the world and will never leave it on its own, and that it is imperative to organize for peace and work for it continuously.

 

WORLD WAR 3  

 

There is no end to the war and conflicts in Syria after 13 years of civil war, in Shengal after the Yazidi Genocide by ISIS, which is known as the 75th edict, or after the massacres in Rojava. Moreover, the fact that the Kurdish Issue is being squeezed into an unsolvable situation and war is being imposed on the Kurds is clearly seen in all the conflicts both in Turkey and in the Middle East. The war process that started with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as the war between Israel and Palestine and the horrible massacres in Gaza have expanded the scale and scope of this struggle for interests. Today, no one can say without hesitation that a new world war, a third world war, is no longer possible, and those who study this issue say that the third world war has already begun as a proxy war like the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

 

ISOLATION CONTINUES IN IMRALI

 

Taking a closer look at Turkey, it is easy to see that there has been a hot war in relation to the Kurdish issue within the framework of generally accepted definitions, and that the direct and indirect effects of the war, although not accepted in the dominant discourse, have been exposed quite harshly. This conflict, which spans the entire history of the Republic, has been almost uninterrupted, except for a brief experience of a solution process in the last forty years. For a dignified peace in the Kurdish issue, a negotiation process that takes into account the historical interlocutors and makes the interlocutors' voices heard, as in the peace and solution process between 2013 and 2015, is essential. Despite this reality, the isolation in İmralı today is recklessly maintained under conditions of total incommunication, in total violation of national and international legislation and human rights. The violations of rights in all prisons, especially those that come to the fore with the unlawful practices of administrative observation committees, create continuity with this isolation and spread isolation to the whole society.

  

RACIST ATTACKS ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE WAR

 

The international community and international organizations have failed to produce a response to the violations of rights and laws in Turkey and the Middle East around the Kurdish issue, nor have they helped the development of a strong anti-war movement. From Turkey to Europe and the US, from Iran to Russia and China, sovereign states prioritize the realization and protection of their own interests in these lands above all else. These conflictual processes - although different from those produced by periods of hot war - have consequences such as structural violence, racism and poverty that affect all aspects of social life. In the field of labor exploitation, the same direct effects include the fact that the state of war keeps the question of survival and security on the agenda, pushing all kinds of social objections, freedom of assembly and demonstration, and first and foremost freedom of expression, and criminalizing demands for trade union rights such as strikes. The mass migration of displaced and displaced populations in war and conflict zones, the often deadly conditions of migration, the exclusion and racist attacks that migrants and refugees are subjected to in the countries where they seek asylum are also an integral part of the horrifying reality of war.

 

WOMEN IN TIMES OF WAR

 

Even the extraordinary increase in cases of femicide cannot be separated from the masculine, militarist and sexist language and practices surrounding the Kurdish issue. Again, cases of violence targeting children must also be evaluated in this direction. Because wars bring the language and practices of masculine, militarist and sexist violence to the extreme. With the end of the war, neither this language nor the practices of violence evaporate. Violence becomes entrenched and normalized in everyday life. The human and material destruction that comes with wars creates negative and irreparable consequences in the lives of women and children that far exceed the actual period of war. Women are subjected to victimization in very specific ways and with very specific methods during times of war. Numerous studies have revealed that in wars and conflicts, women's bodies and enemy territories are subject to the same conception of occupation. 

 

WOMEN IN PEACEBUILDING

 

There are also methods of struggle such as self-defense that women produce against this situation both in their private and social lives, often due to the exhaustion of other means. This is a topic to be considered in relation to war and peace. Among the women who have been pushed to this point in their private lives, Çilem Doğan and Nevin Yıldırım are the first examples that come to mind. In this sense, the women who fought against ISIS barbarism in Rojava constituted an important and pioneering force in the struggle against ISIS as women's defense. For this reason, it is also very important to distinguish women not only as victims of war, but also as active subjects who take positions in the struggle and in order to push back the war and build peace. At the same time, the importance of women's active role in peace-building must be re-emphasized and explained in every context of war.

 

BUILDING PEACE IS BUILDING THE FUTURE TOGETHER

 

Because the fundamental truth recognized by feminist theorists and academics as well as socialist and feminist women's assemblies and women's rights defenders involved in social and national political struggles is that sexual violence and gender inequalities are deeply rooted in the dynamics of war. The knowledge of this fundamental truth must always be kept alive and socialized. Today we are again at a crossroads where we need to strengthen anti-war perspectives. Never in recent history has the need for peace been as strong as it is today. We want peace. We must want peace. We must build peace. This also means building the future together.

  

In line with this perspective, as the DEM Party Women's Assembly, we are launching our campaign titled 'We insist on free and equal life, we are against wars! We want to voice and strengthen women's demand for peace in the strongest way, to make visible the devastating effects of war on women, children and all those who are wanted to be condemned to disadvantaged lives and to contribute to the establishment of global peace. For this purpose, we want to raise the voice of peace by establishing contacts and networks in different fields with the international community and all relevant segments in Turkey, with women, children, labor, ecology and LGBTI+ organizations in civil society, with our local governments and provincial organizations. In the next six months, we will make a strong anti-war effort by organizing national and international panels and conferences, conducting workshops and increasing anti-war texts and visual content in the media.

 

WOMEN WILL MAKE 2025 THE YEAR OF PEACE!

 

In addition to this, we want to declare 2025 as the year of peace! We will plan workshops, meetings, folk festivals, events and productions that will give voice to peace in many cities, especially Diyarbakır and Istanbul, in 2025. We will benefit from the anti-militarist socialist, feminist, ecological accumulation of this country, the glorious experience of the Kurdish people's struggle, and in the year of peace, we will say 'Peace is inevitable, not war' in the strongest way possible.  During these year-long events, we will raise an anti-war voice from all over the country to the whole world and raise it together! 2025 will be the year of peace for women!”