The Coordination of the Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Movement (KJK) issued a written statement condemning “the recent ugly, dirty, chauvinistic and hegemonic male statements made about Abdullah Öcalan by Turan Çömez, the so-called MP of the IYI Party, and the so-called chair of the İYİ Party, are the result of a century-old mentality of hostility.”
The KJK added: “We absolutely reject and strongly condemn these vile remarks. Öcalan is striving, with great labour and struggle, like digging a well with a needle, to advance the process of Peace and a Democratic Society, giving breath to the peoples of Turkey, the Kurdish people, all women and children. He is developing a meaningful democratic alternative to this chauvinistic, racist and hegemonic male political mentality and culture which has been hostile to the peoples, the Kurdish people and women for a hundred years. Insisting on an approach that sabotages, antagonises and blocks these efforts for peace and democracy means playing with the fate of the eighty-two million people of Turkey and the sixty million Kurdish people. No one has the right to play with the future of people, of women and children, or to sacrifice it for personal interests. Figures like Turan Çömez and Dervişoğlu are profiteers who feed on blood and war. They play a role as a coup dynamic because if the war ends and peace comes, they will lose their profits and personal gains. Their mentality coupist, conspiratorial, hostile to peoples and to women will never accept democracy, reconciliation or fraternity.”
Incitement of hostility against Öcalan can never be accepted
The statement continued: “As the women’s movement chanted the slogan ‘Bijî Serok APO’ (Long live Öcalan) in Parliament for Abdullah Öcalan, the architect of peace, hostility against Abdullah Öcalan, as well as anti-Kurdish and anti-women sentiment, was escalated and provoked in the process that followed. How can it disturb anyone to support a leader who has taken great steps, steps no one else has dared to take to build peace, and to chant slogans for him? How can this be considered a criminal act? If this state truly intends to build peace, why should supporting the leadership of peace and chanting slogans for it be treated as a crime? What is at stake here is a fully democratic act and demand. However, using this as a pretext to escalate and provoke chauvinism, hostility against Kurds and Öcalan, and hostility against the women’s struggle can never be accepted.
Attempts to sabotage the process
Hostile, disrespectful and male-dominated statements made against Pervin Buldan, Deputy Speaker of Parliament and a member of the Imralı Delegation, are insults both against a woman and against one of the highest authorities of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. This is a crime and should be subject to investigation. As the women’s movement, we do not accept the insults directed at Ms.Buldan, nor the insults against Öcalan through Ms. Buldan, and we define them as acts of incitement to war. These are attempts and steps to sabotage the process, and everyone must show sensitivity and prevent them.”
The statement underlined that “the Peace and Democratic Society process was initiated as a historic process, yet from the very beginning the unchanged chauvinistic, racist and dominant mentality and language have triggered extremely dangerous developments. Especially the mentality and language of the Turkish media, which shapes the course of politics and society in Turkey, have laid a linguistic minefield, fuelling war and hostility rather than peace and fraternity. The IYI Party, which functions as a counter-guerrilla coup party, and its so-called representatives, are working in full cooperation with the mainstream media to end the process. These are extremely dangerous waters we are in. While the fate of the peoples in the Middle East is being rewritten, this war profiteering mentality, which cannot even be called nationalist, as it is entirely hostile to its own people and sacrifices society for selfish interests is dragging the country towards disaster by attacking Öcalan, the Leader of Peace for peoples and women.
We must expand the struggle for Öcalan’s physical freedom
We warn that if there is any sincerity to developing a millennia-old Kurdish-Turkish peace and fraternity, then this ugly, war-profiteering press and political rhetoric must change and be treated and prosecuted as incitement to war. If the state is truly sincere, it should take positive measures that serve, strengthen and socialise peace. A dignified and democratic peace is the right of the Kurdish and Turkish peoples, of women and children and of young people. As a movement, we have demonstrated our sincerity under Öcalan’s leadership as chief negotiator, and we continue to do so. However, we will not accept such insults and provocations, and we will fight them to the end.”
The KJK called “on all our patriotic people, especially women, and the democratic public in Turkey, everyone in favour of peace, to take a stand against this and to develop a democratic posture. A Kurdish-Turkish peace that emerges will be a historic step that will change the fate of the entire Middle East for peoples and women. A new war sparked by provocations from figures like Turan Çömez would inflict devastation equivalent to dozens of Gazas and would be a conflict so extreme that it would even make people forget their nationality; everyone would suffer. For this reason, we must stand by Öcalan and the Peace and Democratic Society line he has developed, and we must expand the struggle for his physical freedom so he can fulfil his role as chief negotiator.”