MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Amed – Police raided 57 homes in 14 cities on November 29 as part of an investigation based in Ankara. Many women, including the activists of the Free Women’s Movement (Kurdish: Tevgera Jinên Azad –TJA) and members of the Women’s Council of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), were detained in the home raids. In the interview with NuJINHA, the women of Amed drew attention to the policies of intimidation against the Kurdish women's struggle and said that detentions and arrests cannot intimidate the growing women’s struggle.

‘The detention show how they are afraid of women’

Gülşen Sincar, the Central Executive Board member of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) reacted to the detention of the women, “An operation is launched against women before or after a special day of women.” Indicating that the detention shows how they (government) are afraid of women, she added, “We have been going through very tough conditions. The Kurdish women’s movement is the creator of a very strong struggle that has been lasting for many years. On March 8 (International Women's Day), women raised their voices stronger. Then, women faced a detention operation and dozens of our friends were detained.”

‘They cannot stand the growing women’s struggle’

Underlining that women will never be intimidated by such practices, Gülşen Sincar said that they would continue to strengthen the women’s struggle.

“Actually, the system attacks women whenever it faces difficulties. We do not think these attacks will be successful because the women’s struggle has faced many attacks, detentions and arrests until now. But women never bow to such practices and they will never bow to. We can say that the women’s struggle becomes an international struggle waged by women all around the world. The aim of such practices is to limit the women’s struggle because they cannot stand the growing women’s struggle. We will always chant our slogans and fight violence developed by the male-state mentality against women and all people.”

‘Women will continue to exist everywhere they do not want’

Another woman who reacts to the detention of the women is Gülistan Atasoy, HDP Amed Provincial Co-chair. “Such policies against Kurdish women have become systematic,” she said, “We know very well that the aim of detentions is to prevent women's struggle; to destroy the women's organization and deprive women of their rights and freedoms in all spheres of life. Our reaction to these detentions is to defend the slogan of 'Jin Jiyan Azadi', which has become the slogan of all women around the world. In order to defend this slogan, we will struggle and organize everywhere. Women will continue to exist everywhere they do not want. We will grow our struggle by chanting the slogan, ‘Jin Jiyan Azadi’ everywhere. No policy of oppression and means of oppression will be enough to prevent women's voices and struggle.”

The names of women, who have been held in custody in Ankara, are: Figen Ekti, Mekiye Ormancı, Didar Çeşme, Zekiye Güler, Bedia Akkaya, Figen Aras, Sultan Esen, Hatice Güngör, Meral Şimşek, Zeynep Boğa, Pınar Ceylan, Yeliz Ayyıldız Kıyak, Hülya Kınağu, D.A., Merve Tekin Demirel, Hazal Aras, Aysel Ceylan and Beritan Canyaş.