As a result of special warfare policies, women in the cities of Kurdistan are being disappeared and killed. The most striking example of this is the Gülistan Doku case in Dêrsim (Tunceli), carried out by networks backed by soldiers, police and state forces. While this network was exposed through an investigation opened 6 years later, what has come to light has revealed how those backed by judicial power have been able to cover up such incidents. Selin Topbaş and Şükran Demir from the I Need Peace Women's Initiative assessed the special warfare policies carried out in the Gülistan Doku case in particular.

 

Addressing the special warfare policies directed at women in Kurdistan, Selin Topbaş stated that for this to end, those primarily responsible must be put on trial. She said that the policy of impunity toward criminal networks in Kurdistan has spread to other cities as well.

 

 

'THE STATE AVOIDS PUTTING ITS OWN OFFICIALS ON TRIAL'

 

Stating that the case of Gülistan Doku, a Munzur University student who was forcibly disappeared in 2020, has not been effectively investigated, Selin Topbaş drew attention to how public employees and law enforcement officers have made everyday life unliveable in Dêrsim. Selin Topbaş emphasized that despite the rising number of femicides in Turkey, no proper mechanism has been put in place, and that women who apply to such mechanisms are also subjected to violence, harassment and rape by the public officials working there. She said: "With all its institutions, the state avoids putting its officials, who are implicated in crimes, on trial."

 

Stating that war fuels patriarchy, Selin Topbaş said that through security-oriented policies women are being pushed away from their freedoms, their struggles and their demands, and added: "As women, we will continue our struggle everywhere across Turkey, both for our struggle for peace and to remind everyone that this struggle for peace is in fact also part of the struggle against the patriarchal system."

 

'A TOTAL STRUGGLE'

 

Recalling the case of Gülistan Doku, Şükran Demir pointed out that the special warfare policy is being carried out in the provinces of Kurdistan particularly against students at universities. Şükran Demir said that women are being forced into prostitution by networks established at universities, involving public officials, primarily police officers. She stated that this has been especially aimed, after 2016 in particular, at weakening the left-socialist structures at universities as well.

 

 

Stating that the failure of those responsible in the Gülistan Doku case to receive the punishment they deserve cannot be considered separately from the special warfare policy, Şükran Demir said that these policies are operated like a network running through all official state institutions, sustaining one another. She said: "Preventing all of this entirely can only be achieved through a genuinely organized force. That is why we attach the utmost importance to women's solidarity, women's struggle, and society as a whole raising its voice against everything that has been happening."

 

MA / Ugurcan Boztas