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Turkey: Peace can only happen with women's
liberation
13.2.2008
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February 13, 2008
The Peace Parliament organised a symposium entitled
“Democratisation and the Kurdish Issue during the
New Constitutional Process.” Without women, peace is
not achievable.
On 9 and 10 February, the Turkish Peace Parliament
organised a symposium in Ankara, entitled
“Democratisation and the Kurdish Issue during the
New Constitutional Process.” Criticism of Turkey's
"Social Schizophrenia"
According to an article in the Birgün newspaper,
Prof. Dr. Baskin Oran, co-author of the Minority
Rights and Cultural Rights report and independent
candidate for parliament in the last elections,
called for a “supra-identity” of “Turkey”, rather
than “Turkish.”
Abdullah Demirbas, the former mayor of the Sur
municipality in Diyarbakir, who was dismissed for
introducing multi-lingual municipal services,www.ekurd.net
said: “Prime Minister
Erdogan, you said (to the Turks in Germany) that
assimilation is a crime against humanity, but you
are committing the same crime.”
Prof. Dr. Dogu Ergil, the author of an official
report on the Kurdish issue in the 1990s, referred
to the same speech by Erdogan and called it an
example of “social schizophrenia.”
Women have more serious problems than the headscarf
On the second day of the symposium, participants
criticised the fact that despite all the problems
which women face, the headscarf has been chosen as a
priority.
According to the Evrensel newspaper, Prof. Dr.
Fatmagül Berktay of Istanbul University suggested
that there needed to be a common struggle against
pressure on women to obey.
Poet and writer Sennur Sezer spoke of the Novamed
women who have organised a long-term strike,
emphasising their energy and decisiveness. She
added, “everyone wants peace, but most of all us
women.”
Yüksel Mutlu of the Human Rights Association (IHD)
spoke about the women’s movement and peace. She
criticised the fact that the headscarf issue was
being debated when women faced so many other
problems.
Sara Aktas of the Diyarbakir Women’s Platform said
that it was women who struggled for peace and
democracy; the republic would only become more
democratic if women were liberated. According to
Aktas, ten percent of the political prisoners in
Turkey are women.
Ilknur Baser of the Trade Union for Health and
Social Workers (SES) criticised the fact that with
the discourse on “bringing peace” to Iraq, the USA
had emptied the term peace of meaning. Many women
still illiterate
Hülya Gülbahar, president of the Association for the
Education and Support of Women Candidates (Ka-Der),
pointed out that 50 percent of the adult women in
the East and Southeast of Turkey were illiterate,www.ekurd.net
and one in five in
Turkey in general. This meant that women could not
be voted for, and could also often not decide freely
who to vote for.
Sociologist Ismail Besikci, well-known for his
academic work on Kurds, praised the Peace Mothers.
He said that one of the results of the “25-year
Kurdish war” has been that Kurdish women have
entered political life. Women’s participation was a
way towards a solution.
Prof. Dr. Cengiz Aktar of Bahcesehir University,
Istanbul, called for a decentralisation of the
country and suggested more extensive use of EU
funds.
bianet org
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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