Woman activists from different women’s organisations in Diyarbakır (Amed) shared their views with Jin News regarding the recent raids targeting Rosa Women’s Association in Diyarbakır and the increasing attacks on the women’s struggle in Turkey.
Various institutions, including the Rosa Women’s Association, were raided in Diyarbakır on Monday morning.
22 women were detained including Jin News reporter Beritan Canözer, members of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Free Women’s (TJA) and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)
The wave of detentions came right after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pulled Turkey out of the Istanbul Convention with a short pre-prepared statement issued in the middle of the night.
‘International solidarity must be built’
Democratic Peoples’ Congress (HDK) co-chair İdil Uğurlu expressed that the great barricade against institutionalised fascism in Turkey is the “organised women’s struggle”.
“TJA is one of the vanguards of the women’s struggle in the world, which is closely followed by international women’s movements. Rosa Women’s Association and Peace Mothers initiative aims at ensuring justice and peace in Turkey,” Uğur said.
Underlining the point that the systematic attacks of the government is trying to weaken women, Uğurlu stressed that the women’s struggle has grown a lot larger than the Turkish government had expected or imagined.
”Following the further growth of the women’s struggle, women will not give up their right to live freely, for their identity and for their sexual freedom, and they are fighting continously,” Uğur said, “International solidarity must be built to support the struggle of women in Turkey so we can stand side by side, all together reaffirming ‘we will exist’. I believe that women should raise their voices on the streets, in the workplaces and at their homes which are all places that have been attempted to be turned into a prison for women.”
‘Rosa Women Institution became hope’
Socialist Re-Establishment Party (SYKP) Co-Chair Canan Yüce stated that the government has been trying to intimidate women for a long time.
Yüce stated that the government gave the message with the latest detention operations in Diyarbakır. “You will either obey us or you will also be subjected to these pressures,”
”Our institutions were closed due to trustees appointed to the posts of our elected officials. Despite all, we established new associations and continued the women’s struggle,” Yüce said.
”We are not simply a building and we will not be limiting our struggle to just one place. We will continue to fight everywhere,” Yüce continued, “The Rosa Women’s Association has become a hope for women in Diyarbakır with their struggle under such harsh circumstances of pressure and pandemic.”
Turkish government tries to ‘destroy the Kurdish women’s movement’
The Turkish government puts an extra special pressure on the Kurdish women’s movement, according to Yüce. “The government continues to be hostile to the Kurds and tries to especially destroy the Kurdish women’s movement,” she said.
“Because if Kurdish women in Turkey unite their struggle with the women’s movement in general this will create a huge dynamism. This is why they are doing this with the appointed trustees; and closing our associations, however, each time women have increased both the united struggle and built solidarity. We say once again: We will not give up our solidarity, one of us, all of us will continue to fight for the Istanbul Convention,” she said.
‘Attacks against women will intensify’
Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) member Kadriye Özgüç underlined that the attacks against women will ‘intensify’ in the next period,
“The reason for the last attack on the Rosa Women’s Association is the increasing struggle they have been giving. The next period may be even more difficult for us. They will intensify their attacks against women,” Özgüç said.
“No matter how much more they attack, we will defend our basic rights in the period ahead of us. We will not step back. Those, who think that we are afraid are the ones who should be afraid from us.”
