The echoes of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan's "Call for Peace and Democratic Society" announced on 27 February continue. Women in Dilok (Antep) spoke about the call, which is one of the most talked about agendas of the public.

 

Sociologist academician Duygu Altınoluk emphasised that important processes such as peace cannot be carried out without women, who make up half of the society. Duygu Altınoluk said, "It is not possible to discuss and discuss any social problem without women or to produce a solution to it." Duygu Altınoluk stated that peace as the opposite of war includes women in itself and that women should definitely take part in the negotiations. "Peace includes women, but when it comes to negotiations, we cannot see women at the table," she added. 

 

Stating that peace processes are generally carried out with a male-dominated perspective, Duygu Altınoluk said, "When there is a concentration of men in decision-making mechanisms, the items always proceed through gender-blind concepts. It is necessary to be gender egalitarian and to foresee the participation of women in the process while negotiating and making a peace agreement.  When you include women in the negotiation process in peace, you are already approaching from an equal and egalitarian perspective."

 

DEMAND FOR A FREE WORLD

 

Feminist academic Özlem Türkdoğan also drew attention to the importance of women's participation in negotiation processes and said that women are always in favour of peace. Özlem Türkdoğan underlined that women should be equally involved in this process. Özlem Türkdoğan said that conflictual processes target women the most and stated that as the conflictual process deepens, murders of women increase. 

 

Stressing that she felt uneasy at the beginning of the process due to the developments in previous negotiation processes Özlem Türkdoğan said, "I must admit that I am very anxious. Because whenever the voice of peace is raised in Turkey, much more horrible processes erupt afterwards. I say this with this concern. For peace, we all need to be able to build a world that is equal, free, democratic, where peoples can live together and where there can be freedom of thought and belief. For this world, women need to be here equally. Whenever women are empowered and rise up, patriarchy reproduces itself. Therefore, if there is a peace process, I think that the voice of women should increase in order for it to be carried out in the healthiest, executable, painless and deathless way. I also think that the women's struggle will definitely come to the fore in peace, equality, freedom and democracy, and even guide it."

 

'PEACE HAS NO LOSERS'

 

Elif Söyleyici, a member of the Confederation of Public Laborer's Unions (KESK) Dilok Women's Assemblies, emphasised that the new process that has started is valuable for all segments of society, especially women. Underlining that war and conflict processes target women's bodies, Elif Söyleyici stated that war also brings economic, ecological and social destruction.

 

Elif Söyleyici added, "In this sense, what we hope for is to evolve into a society where people's religion, race and gender are not discussed in peace and where the culture of violence does not develop. Conflicts and wars affect all areas. Our expectation is very great. We want this country to be democratised. Peace processes have no losers."

 

MA / Ceylan Şahinli