WAN - DEM Party woman municipality co-mayors gathered in Wan. Co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları said, "Power is a contagious disease. We are there to represent the people. We have to protect ourselves from the contagiousness of the ruling mentality."

 

The Democratic Local Administrations Women's Board of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) is organizing a "Local Administrations Women's Workshop" in Wan. All woman municipality co-mayors attended the workshop held in a hotel in Wan. The workshop will continue for 2 days.

 

ŞEDAL'S EMPHASIS ON 'WOMEN'S CITIES'

 

Wan Metropolitan Municipality Co-mayor Neslihan Şedal, who made the opening speech of the workshop, said: "We did not achieve these gains easily. We are resisting at a time when dirty policies targeting Kurdish women are in effect. Kurdish women have shown great will against these policies. We will make important decisions here. We started with 3 women in local governments, and now we have reached hundreds. Our philosophy and local government model have become an example to the world. Kurdish women's resistance is now offering a new model to the world. This model is a democratic, ecological and women's liberation paradigm. We will make our cities women's cities."

 

TÜRKOĞLU: 'BIJÎ SEROK APO' IS NOT A CRIME

 

DEM Party Women's Assembly Spokesperson Halide Türkoğlu touched on the unresolved nature of the Kurdish issue and the absolute isolation of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan. Türkoğlu said, "Those who insist on war policies instead of a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue continue their political genocide operations. The deepening isolation system is also deepening the conditions of fascism in the country with each passing day. The stage we have reached today is not only a stage where the boundaries of politics are drawn; it is necessary to say that all kinds of interventions have begun regarding what the Kurds will wear, how they will speak, in which language they will express themselves, how they will dance their halay, how they will perform their funerals and condolences." 

 

Türkoğlu emphasized that the slogan "Bijî Serok Apo (Long Live Leader Apo)", which was used as a justification for the detention and arrest of people dancing the halay to Kurdish songs, is not a crime. Türkoğlu reminded of the court decisions regarding this. Türkoğlu said, "The language and culture of the Kurdish people cannot be criminalized or considered a crime." 

 

HATİMOĞULLARI: EQUAL REPRESENTATION IS OUR PURPLE LINE

 

DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları said: “Co-chairship and equal representation are indispensable in our entire management approach. We said ‘Co-chairship and equal representation are our purple line’ and we paid a high price for this.” 

 

Drawing attention to the fact that there are woman co-mayors in all municipalities, Hatimoğulları emphasized that they are a model for all of Turkey and the Middle East with 78 woman co-mayors.

 

‘POWER’ WARNING TO CO-MAYORS

 

Hatimoğulları continued as follows: “Power is a bad disease. Power is a bad and contagious disease. When we come to that position, we think that we are the only and most important people in the whole world. However, this is not the case, we are there to represent the people. We are there to demonstrate a practice in light of the people’s demands, needs and paradigm. We women have to protect ourselves from the contagion of the ruling mentality. The most important way to protect ourselves is through our ideological equipment, knowing and internalizing our paradigm in the best way possible. Otherwise, we cannot prevent the negative limits and effects of the ruling power. Our greatest expectation from our women co-mayors is to transfer the practice of local government to all women, neighborhood by neighborhood."

 

'THERE IS AN OPERATIONAL APPROACH'

 

Hatimoğulları said the following: "We are addressing the ruling power from here; We will continue to speak in our mother language, sing songs,  dance the halay, dream in our mother language, and live our feelings in our mother language. No power can tear us away from our mother language. The banning of the language of nearly 30 million people is not something that any understanding can accept. This is our call to all local governments on this issue; we call for services to be provided in all languages spoken within the borders of that municipality, and for cultural activities to be carried out in those languages by local governments.”

 

The workshop continued closed to the press.