AĞRI - Stating that the people were forced to migrate due to the policies carried out, Green Left Party Ağrı MP candidate Nejla Demir said: "I will work for our people to return to their lands."

  

The Greens and Left Future Party (Green Left Party) parliamentary candidates continue their work in 81 provinces. Ağrı is one of the cities where the Green Left Party is assertive. In the 2018 elections, 3 of the 4 MPs were taken by HDP and one by the AKP. The only goal of the Green Left Party in this election is to win 4 MPs from the city. Green Left Party's Senior Agricultural Engineer MP candidate Nejla Demir says that one of her main goals is to reunite the people who were forced to migrate with their lands.

 

Although Demir's life story is somewhat similar to every patriotic family living in Kurdistan, it has different points. Demir's father, Mehmet Hanifi Demir, was imprisoned for a total of 20 years on different dates due to his political life. Father Mehmet Hanifi Demir was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison for "propagandizing for a terrorist organization", and his mother Gülsün Demir was sentenced to 4 years and 4 months on charges of "committing a crime on behalf of the organization, although she is not a member of a terrorist organization". Demir's parents had to leave abroad due to the sentences and are still living in exile. Regarding his father's prison life, Demir said: "We have also experienced the traumatic events and difficult processes experienced by the Kurdish society. My brother, Mahsun Demir, lost his life in 2016 due to the security policies of the state. The reason why the struggle is so alive today is thanks to the people who shielded their lives. I lost my brother. After that, my world changed a lot, after that I started to think about how I can shoulder this struggle. He had a social consciousness, we always remember him with a smile, we get strength from him.”

 

'I WAS IN PRISON WITH MY 6 MONTHS OLD BABY'

 

Demir had to go to prison with his 6-month-old baby because of a tweet she sent against Rojava in 2019. While Demir was in Ağrı Prison for a while, she was later exiled to Oltu Prison. Demir said: “My baby was 6 months old. It was a time when Turkey started the operations, I made a post in my own way, at a time when Rojava's strong resistance, women's being at the forefront, Jin jiyan azadi, slogans created a voice in the world. I was detained 2 days later and stayed in prison with my baby for 1 month. I couldn't establish the necessary communication with my baby in that process because I went to prison before I could get over the puerperal depression, but I got over it afterwards.”

 

'I CAN'T STAY SILENT AGAINST THE OPPRESSION OF WOMEN'

 

Saying that she grew up in a patriotic family, Demir summarized her reasons for being a parliamentary candidate as follows: “I always had a reaction against social events and I was involved in events. When we look at today, our friends who were detained, our politicians under arrest, our youth who were forced to migrate, our young people whose freedoms were restricted and who were always declared traitors were the main reasons. You had a naturally developing political attitude, it was not enough to reject the impositions by opposing and objecting, and I applied for a candidate. I have been working in the field in Ağrı for about 12 years, I go to people's fields, houses, villages, and therefore I have had the opportunity to dominate their problems. I could observe their problems up close, and all I have seen for 12 years is a people condemned to poverty, deprivation, a poverty imposed despite the resources of production. Again, there is a power system imposed by the system, and what this power mentality imposes on women is that at the end of the day, I had to be a voice against the mentality that declared women only consumers. We say 'the freedom of society goes through the freedom of women', women are involved in every stage of production, their responsibilities do not end when they come home, it is not possible to accept this power mentality. It was not possible to sit at home and watch them.”

 

'PEOPLE ARE FORCED TO IMMIGRATE'

 

Stating that agriculture is the main source of income of the city, Demir said: “The state has had abrasive policies in this regard. Although these policies were carried out in every field from education to health, they worked differently in agriculture. Farmers' professions were discredited, their labor cheapened, they were deprived of self-production, their production and land were taken away, and eventually they were forced to migrate. My priority is to reunite people with their lands, seeds and villages and create self-production awareness. Everyone needs to return to their homeland and I want to take the lead in this.”

 

MA /  Berivan Kutlu