This is our call for the building of peace, a democratic society and the inclusion of women’s voices in the constitution.

The conflict over the Kurdish issue has put its stamp over the last 40 years in Turkey. The country’s entire political, social, and cultural structure has been shaped by the twists and turns of this conflict. The last Kurdish uprising has had a radical effect on all political struggles, social movements, and alliance relations in Turkey. The women’s liberation movement in Turkey has achieved significant progress in socialising peace and raising awareness that peace is not only a security issue for the highest authorities to discuss, but also a political and social issue and a process to be constructed.

Today, the struggle for the socialisation of peace and the construction of peace from below stands before us women as a more crucial, powerful and burning issue than ever before. The process of socialising peace cannot be achieved in a single stroke based on a single demand but requires continuous and persistent work as well as a longwinded struggle, involving the building and expansion of alliances. Women in our geographical area have endured significant violence at the hands of the interwoven operations of male-dominated mentality, capitalism, militarism, chauvinism and religionism, and have strenuously fought against these forces. The past decade has been a very difficult one for us, with challenges ranging from femicide to poverty, from hate crimes to marginalisation, from the appropriation of women’s labour to the intensification of sexism across all sectors. For after every failed peace process that cannot be sustained, a stronger wave of militarism, war, violence, chauvinism and nationalism rises, which is precisely why we have gone through such a tremendous process of destruction over the last 10 years. Despite this, we have never wavered in our commitment to the struggle. Based on this experience, we have formulated very concrete and fundamental demands for peace and against war policies that generate enormous violence: These demands, informed by our collective struggle, include the immediate withdrawal of all trustees from the municipalities and the termination of the trusteeship system, the repeal of the Anti-Terrorism Law, the release of all political prisoners, with priority given to those who are ill, the decriminalisation of politics, and the return to the Istanbul Convention.

The free women’s movement is both the bearer of these demands and one of the main actors of the peace process. In this context, our movement recognises the vital importance of the call for peace and democratic society outlined by the chief negotiator of the peace process, Mr. Abdullah Öcalan, and considers the effort for the socialisation of peace to be its paramount political duty. Furthermore, we are aware that the construction of peace cannot be confined to Turkey, but must be understood in relation to the lives, political will and, most importantly, the security of Kurds in the four regions of Kurdistan, including Rojava. In this context, adopting an internationalist perspective, we will struggle to build a peace coalition together with all our allies against all militarist initiatives and military operations both in Turkey and across the border. We will strive to fulfil this task with the awareness that peace-building is a long-term process, that we are building upon the legacy of those we have lost for the sake of an honourable peace and with the longing to build a new and egalitarian world today. We are fully cognizant of the gravity of our responsibility and we are preparing for a long march in accordance with it.

Today in Turkey, everyone from women to broad sectors of workers and labourers, from the Alawite to the Kurdish community, from political prisoners to young people, from the LGBTİ+ to marginalised groups, needs peace and democracy. The Kurdish freedom movement is committed to developing its peace programme as the shared left-socialist line of all the oppressed, exploited and struggling people of Turkey. As has been the case to date. Women are, in fact, one of the leading groups in this struggle, as they are one of the sectors most affected by violence during war, militarism, monism, capitalism, the male-dominated mentality, religionism, discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, and colonialism. They are also among the most active in their struggle against these issues, driven by a longing for another world and liberation. Therefore, as women, we will raise our voices for political channels to remain open, for legal grounds to be created for a solution and for politically bold and determined steps to be taken. We are aware that establishing peace, a democratic society and a new democratic basis is achievable. Many sectors of society are demanding this in different ways, and our objective is to bring these voices together.

The demand for a new constitution is perhaps not among the most urgent and primary demands in present-day Turkey or in the context of peace-building processes. On the other hand, changing the constitution of 1982, which was drafted during the junta period by the putschists and has been the basis for all anti-democratic practices in the last 40 years of Turkey, has been a key demand of the Kurdish freedom movement and many other political movements for many years. Furthermore, the debate on a new constitution is of fundamental importance for two reasons. Firstly, it is important to discuss this as the final legal and political text of a new social contract in response to the demand raised by very broad sections of Turkish society for a new, egalitarian, democratic shared life. Secondly, given that this will be a legal and political text embodying the perspective and conception of a new and egalitarian shared life after the conflict, it is necessary to struggle for this in all peace-building processes.

As TJA (Tevgera Jinên Azad), as with other peace-building mechanisms, here too we rely on our own strength, our political line, and the broad and deep-rooted relationships we have established with the women’s movement. At this table, we want to be the voice and word of all women in Turkey who share the aspiration for peace and strive for its socialisation. We aim to adopt a comprehensive approach that does not exclude anyone and encompasses a wide range of issues, spanning from trade union rights to the status demands of the Kurdish community, and from the rejection of monism and denial to the achievements of workers and labourers. Furthermore, we seek to address the reduction of women’s existence to their status within the family structure, and to advance the just demands of women in the constitutional debates. We know that the processes of constructing peace and democratic societies can only flourish on strong legal and political foundations. We will struggle to the end to establish this political and legal foundation in order to promote democratisation and peacebuilding and enable the creation of a new social contract. We call on all women who believe in peace. Come with your beliefs, concerns, expectations regarding peace and criticisms. Let’s gain strength through discussions and reach common words. The Kurdish women’s movement has the experience to carry out this debate. We are determined to bring women’s voices into the discussion on the new constitution. We call on all women in our shared geography to joint struggle for the socialization of peace in today’s critical political climate. We firmly believe that we will build the equal shared life of all the oppressed, exploited and the struggling in this land under the leadership of women. Our call is to all women who share this belief.

Tevgera Jinên Azad