İSTANBUL - Çiçek Otlu, one of the Istanbul candidates of the Green Left Party, who lost many of her relatives in the Sivas Massacre and started the struggle after meeting the revolutionaries, will carry her struggle to the Parliament, even though she went to prison 6 times.

 

The Greens and Left Future Party (Green Left Party) continues its electoral work in Kurdistan and Turkey without slowing down. In the elections where the President and the 28th term MPs will be determined, approximately 10 million voters will go to the polls in Istanbul, where 98 MPs will be elected.

 

Çicek Otlu, Spokesperson of the Socialist Women's Council (SKM), nominated from the 3rd district of Istanbul, spoke about the elections and their goals.

 

AN ALEVİ REVOLUTIONARY

 

Otlu was born in an Alevi family in Sivas in 1973, Otlu grew up in the resistance tradition of Pir Sultan Abdal. Otlu, whose first conflict with the system started when she had to hide his Alevi identity, lost many relatives during the Sivas Massacre. Otlu, who met with the struggle with the Sivas Massacre on July 2, 1993, said: “We were brought up by being told to hide our identity because the Alevi community was constantly massacred. In the Sivas Massacre, many of my relatives' houses were swept and burned because they were Alevis. I lost many of my relatives and villagers in this massacre. I met revolutionism with the Sivas Massacre."

 

Stating that the bombing of the Özgür Ülke newspaper on December 3, 1994 was a turning point for him, Otlu said: “The massacres against the revolutionaries at home and the serhildan who grew up in Kurdistan directed my face towards the revolutionaries and socialists. My first work was in the field of press with Atılım newspaper. Afterwards, I organized from the ranks of the Free Youth and struggled to express the democratic demands of the students."

 

OTLU WAS DETAINED 15 TIMES AND ARRESTED 6 TIMES

 

Otlu, who was detained many times during the May 1 and March 8 International Women's Day events she participated while participating in youth work, was detained for the first time in 1995 at the Beytepe Campus protest of Hacettepe University. Otlu, who was arrested on charges of "being a member of the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP)," was imprisoned for 10 years. Otlu said: "My first prison experience was Ulucanlar Prison. I was exiled to Sakarya Prison in 1999 and to Gebze Women's Closed Prison due to the Marmara Earthquake."

 

Witnessing the resistance and massacre in Gebze Prison, Otlu said: "I was arrested again in 2006, shortly after I was released in 2004. Again in 2012, I was detained and arrested for participating in the banned Istanbul Kazlıçeşme Newroz. In 2013, I was arrested for participating in the Taksim Gezi Park resistance. The last time I was arrested when I was the ESP Chairperson in 2017, I was imprisoned for two and a half years. I was detained 6 times in prison, and I was detained 15 times. I can say that my life has been an uninterrupted struggle."

 

WHY DOES OTLU CANDIDATE?

 

Underlining that everyone who wants freedom and equality should struggle, Otlu said: "We entered the elections in an environment where the name and existence of women were discussed. The reasons are the becoming of a candidate from the Green Left Party to defeat the AKP-MHP fascist regime, to voice the honorable demand of the Kurdish people, especially the working class, to support the struggle for women's freedom, especially the Istanbul Convention and the law numbered 6284. We took on duty under the umbrella of the Green Left Party to defend its gains. We will stand by the struggle against the male-dominated regime that imprisons us in the family and sees us as slaves of men throughout the election and after the election. We will express the demands of those who fight for ecology. As someone from the Alevi culture, we will express all the demands of the democratic Alevi movement. We will bring the street struggle together with the Parliament.”