Solidarity demonstration for the 13 women on Kobanê Trial

Ayşe Acar Başaran, Spokesperson for the HDP Women’s Assembly, spoke in front of the Sincan Prison Complex on Thursday and spoke about the celebrations held on March 8, International Women’s Day.

Başaran said that “Women have celebrated March 8 in the fields, squares, and streets. Unfortunately, while women in Turkey face violence, femicide, harassment, and rape every day, they have also become the target of a political judiciary controlled by the government with a judicial stick.”

Başaran said, “Therefore, we, along with the executives of the Rosa Women’s Association, the Star Women’s Association, the Human Rights Association (İHD), the Lawyers’ Association for Freedom (ÖHD), and the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD), came to follow the Kobane conspiracy case which turned into a file where women’s struggle is prosecuted and the judiciary is turned into a device of the government.”

Drawing attention to the 13 female prisoners held hostage in the case, Başaran said: “All 13 of our female friends on trial are women who have been fighting for women’s rights in Turkey and have dedicated their lives to it. Our female friends are prosecuted in the Kobanê Conspiracy Trial for resisting the ISIS attacks on Kobanê, for opposing ISIS atrocities, for standing with the people and the women of Kobanê. But we know that these courtrooms were never capable of judging the women’s struggle, the Kurdish struggle, or the struggle of the oppressed. From the first day until today, Sebahat Tuncel, Ayla Akat Ata, Figen Yüksekdağ, Aysel Tuğluk, Gülser Yıldırım and all our other female friends have once again expressed that they are not the ones on trial, but the judges, and that they do not give up the struggle even if they are within four walls. We are here once more to support our friends and to convey that we will continue to repeat what they say in courtrooms across the country and to expand this struggle.”

Addressing the government, Başaran said: “Stop trying to resolve this country’s oldest problems in the courtrooms. Give up your efforts to make the country’s oldest conflicts invisible through the judiciary. You were unsuccessful, because neither the women nor the Kurds backed down in the face of your policies. None of our friends expressed remorse. Because they had nothing to regret. They fought for women to have a free future in this country and for people to live in an equal and free system, and they have vowed again that they will continue to fight. We’d like to emphasize once more that you can’t make women back down through your tried-and-failed ways. We will follow the case and continue to come here and share with the public what they have said in the courtrooms.”

While Rosa Woman’s Association President Adalet Kaya stated that they support the women on trial, ÖHD Co-Chair İlknur Alcan emphasized the same points as ÖHD female lawyers.