MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Semsur – Eight women have founded Gölbaşı Women’s Cooperative (GÖL-KA) in the Gölbaşı district of Sensur (Turkish: Adıyaman) province to improve agricultural productivity and to sell their agricultural products. The women exhibit their homemade dried mulberry, grapes, molasses, sumac, homemade tomato and pepper paste, and baby dolls in the building of the cooperative.

The opening ceremony of the cooperative was held several days ago in the district. We spoke to Emine Köseler, the chair of the cooperative, about the objectives of the cooperative. Stating that they have founded the cooperative to re-strengthen the unity that has recently decreased in every field, Emine Köseler said that women’s non-stop participation in agricultural productivity in the district emerge the idea to found the cooperative.  “Our objective to found the cooperative is to stop the ongoing regression. We think if we act with the spirit of unity and solidarity, we will be successful in this region. We officially founded the cooperative three months ago and it will be active in 30 villages and three towns.”

“We wanted to form a marketplace for women”

Indicating that all women working for the cooperative have experience in agriculture, Emine Köseler said that they have formed a marketplace for women. “We will do our best to stop the agricultural problems in the region. Women exhibit their products here. We are going through a period when farmers are upset with the production. We have founded the cooperative to do something about being a center of reproduction. Our region has major agricultural problems. The villagers are upset due to environmental factors, the high prices of diesel, fertilizer, etc. As the cooperative, our objective is to carry out works to encourage women to take part in agricultural production.”

“Women in the region should be encouraged to take part in production”

“We want to encourage not only women living in Gölbaşı but also across the city,” Emine Köseler said, adding, “Such cooperatives should be founded everywhere in the region. Becoming a cooperative is very valuable particularly in production. This initiative will support the women in the region to be able to stand their own legs in social, economic, and cultural life. We will succeed in this and we will do everything to spread cooperatives in the region.”