People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları made evaluations about the agenda at her party's weekly group meeting.

 

Stating that the world and Turkey have gone through wars, Hatimoğulları noted that the historical poverty was caused by wars. Stating that the republic of workers, women, laborers and peoples must be democratized in the second century of the Republic, Hatimoğulları pointed out that the politicians on trial were held "hostage" regarding the ongoing Kobanê Case.

 

‘KURD MOTHERS BEST UNDERSTAND THE PAIN OF SOLDIER MOTHERS WHO HAVE FUNERALS'

 

Expressing her condolences to the families of the soldiers who lost their lives in Zap, Hatimoğulları said: “Pain has no color, but pain has a class. We tried to explain the class character of this pain to the Turkish and world public opinion as much as we could. When we look back at the families of the soldiers' funerals arriving today, we see that they all live in adobe houses and have to live in tents. We see that children of poor families serve in the military and receive news of deaths. No one from the palace or their supporters can receive such news. Soldier families who had to stay in tents after the earthquake were constantly shown in the press. What is even worse is that after the news of the funeral came to this tent, after that flag was hung there, the electric heaters were left there and served to the press. That's why we think that pain is class-based. It must be known that Kurdish mothers can best understand the pain of the mothers of the soldiers whose funerals have arrived”

 

'AN UNDERSTANDING THAT REFERS TO EXECUTIVES AND EXECUTION HAS NO PLACE IN PARLIAMENT'

 

Hatimoğulları also responded to MHP's Devlet Bahçeli's words targeting their party at the group meeting. Hatimoğulları said: “Bahçeli says; During the time of Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey, those who did not speak Turkish could not live in these lands. And starting from this, based on such a racist discourse, he says that the DEM Party has no place in the parliament by saying 'Those who do not speak Turkish have no place in the Parliament'. We say this very clearly; An approach that evokes executioners and executionership has no place in parliament. Parliament is a political arena where speech is established, parliament talks about politics, wars and conflicts and all issues experienced in the country are discussed and solutions are found. Our answer to those who say 'Kurdish speakers have no place here' and 'DEM Party members have no place here', as if calling the executioners to the parliament, is clearly this; As DEM Party members, we do not only speak Kurdish. We also speak Arabic, Turkish and Syriac. We are a political party that speaks all ancient languages in Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Our place is in parliament. Those who have no place in parliament are those who are warmongers and deepen conflicts. This is our place”

 

CIVILIANS ARE BEING MURDERED

 

DEM Party Co-Chair Hatimoğulları continued her words as follows: “Look, Rojava started to be bombed immediately after the soldiers' deaths. Civilians are being massacred. Power plants, food warehouses and hospitals, civilian living spaces are being bombed. Rojava is being bombed right now. When we think of Rojava, we think of the most honorable struggle against ISIS, the Kurds and the Arab peoples with whom they are allied. ISIS is a danger not only in the lands of ISIS, which ISIS dreams of, but also for the USA, France and the West. The people of Rojava have struggled to save the whole world from this danger”

 

THE DOCUMENT OF TAKING A STEP TO THE SOLUTION

 

Our dear people; Today, at the General Assembly of the Parliament, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan and Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler will give information about the recent soldier deaths. A summit was already held in the Palace under the name of 'National Security Summit'. As you know, the possibilities of the Kurdish issue through peaceful and democratic methods were discussed at the Dolmabahçe Palace, where the security summit was held in 2015. I currently have a document published in the official gazette. I will share a very short excerpt from that document. The publication date of the document in the official gazette is 10.07.2014 and the following is stated in this document: 'Steps that can be taken in the fields of political, legal, socio-economic, psychological, cultural, social, human rights, security and disarmament and related issues can be determined to strengthen social integration. If deemed necessary, dialogue, meetings, etc. with individuals, institutions and organizations at home and abroad. It decides to carry out studies and assigns individuals, institutions and organizations to carry out these studies.’ This is a document published in the official gazette. This document is a document that outlines the steps to be taken towards the solution of the Kurdish issue.

 

MR. ÖCALAN SAID: 'I WILL SOLVE IT IN A WEEK'

 

And Mr. Öcalan said this every time he spoke. In fact, this is an approach that strengthens this document, he said: 'If I am given the opportunity, we can eliminate this conflictual process in a week and talk about peace. This could open up possibilities.’ But what was the response? The Dolmabahçe agreement was abandoned, the dialogue table was overthrown, the conflict process was accelerated, and then an absolute isolation is imposed in İmralı, thus preventing Mr. Öcalan's speech.

 

LET'S ESTABLISH 'PEACE SUMMITS' TOGETHER

 

If it had continued from the Dolmabahçe agreement period or this document I mentioned, we would not be experiencing pain upon pain in Turkey today. We would be talking about democracy. We would be talking about the politics of peace against the drums of war in the Middle East, the politics of peace for the whole people. We would be talking about the rights of workers, laborers, young people and nature, and the rights of women. And from here we reiterate our call once again. Conflicts are not the solution, war is not the solution, pain is not the solution. No one must try to compete with pain or use that pain as political material. It is enough. These lands are now saturated with blood. These lands have had enough of suffering, and let's organize peace summits together, which are the guarantee of real security, instead of security summits.

 

LET THE GUNS SHUT LET PEACE SPEAK

 

On January 19, the anniversary of Hrant Dink's murder, we will be at the place where Hrant was shot. In his signature text for peace, Hrant Dink said: ‘We can dream of the peace we have forgotten. Being able to dream is our greatest power. As we dream, peace will come to life. It will start breathing. First, let the guns be silent, let death be silent and let life talk.’ As you boldly said, we also repeat your words. First, let the guns fall silent, let death be silent, let life speak. Let's talk about peace, not war. We promise you that our struggle will continue until the end to establish peace in the Anatolian lands together, so that every signature signed for peace becomes stronger.

 

WOMEN PAID THE HEAVIEST PRICE

 

The year 2023 has not been easy for us, women. Unemployment and poverty are rampant and we, women, paid the heaviest price for this. In 2023, male violence took 315 women from us. 248 women lost their lives suspiciously, 28 women were murdered even though they were supposedly under protection. Unfortunately, this judicial system could not protect those women. Undoubtedly, violence against women is legitimized by AKP and MHP policies, the de facto impunity system of the male judiciary and the sexist discourses of the media.

 

WOMEN'S VOICES ARE RISING EVERYWHERE

 

The voices of women echo from all over the world, from Iran, Kurdistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Palestine, Rojava and Turkey. We are organizing our liberation from heavy shackles, from the captivity of the dark night, for our body, our labor, our identity, our freedom. We hereby promise once again that we will break our chains with women's internationalist solidarity, get rid of our shackles, and build a free future together.

 

DEMOCRACY REVOLUTION

 

One of the most important agendas in Turkey right now is elections. Our work on local elections continues intensively all over Kurdistan and Turkey. Last weekend, we held our primary elections with 100 thousand delegates in approximately 90 electoral districts. In these studies, approximately 5 thousand people, including our Central Executive Board, our Party Assembly, and our parliamentary group, took part in the referendum. We did not limit delegates to just party members. In other words, this referendum was not an ordinary primary election as known by conventional parties. This referendum was as inclusive as possible, and wherever it took place, it was held together with all democratic forces, youth, women's movement, nature and human rights defenders of that city. In the past, every person who worked in these institutions and was part of the administration saw themselves as a delegate there. As DEM Party, we carried out a democratic revolution. We made a democratic breakthrough that no other party could attempt to make. We once again showed our difference from the establishment parties with this referendum. We would like to express our endless gratitude to our friends who contributed to this referendum, who worked day and night to make it happen, and to the delegates who came to vote regardless of snow or cold and for making us experience this enthusiasm and this feast of democracy.

 

THE FIRST MOVE TO SEND TRUSTEES IS PRE-ELECTIONS

 

The primary election was also the first move for us to send trustees. More than 100 thousand people came to those ballot boxes and cast their votes with great enthusiasm. Indeed, another meaning of this democracy feast is to sweep away the trustee politics. And of course, for us, we have now moved on to the second stage. This is the second and biggest move we will take to send trustees and build the understanding of democratic municipality in these lands. The March 31 elections will be of historical importance. We will take back the municipalities usurped by trustees. Local governments and municipalities will be governed by the authority derived from the right to vote and be elected, which is the minimum condition of democracy. The people living in our municipalities where trustees were appointed chose their candidates with their own will. The people will ensure that their candidates win and remain there permanently, with the will of the people.

 

WE WILL NOT BE SATISFIED BY SWEEPING THE TRUSTEES

 

We will protect this will with the will of the right to elect municipalities as of April 1. They will never again be allowed to enter into the mentality of illegitimate laws and unconstitutional usurper trustees. We hereby call out to those who stole the authority of the elected officials through a coup, those who robbed the municipalities' coffers and turned them into ruins, those who left the city without pavements and roads, those who became so rude that they even removed the paving stones in order to take revenge, and those who left the streets covered in dust and garbage. We, as the people, will sweep away your trustee mentality. The people will sweep away this trustee mentality, those who remove Kurdish signs, those who target our co-chairship and equal representation, and those who close the institutions opened to contribute socially and economically to women. We will sweep away the trustees together. We will not be content with sweeping away the trustees. We will definitely take over Şırnak, Bingöl, Ağrı and Muş, which have almost turned into a service-providing municipality model due to AKP's corruption-ridden approach to lack of service.

 

WE WILL NOT ACCEPT THE EQUATION WITHOUT THE PEOPLE

 

We talked about what we mean by urban reconciliation in a way that covers all political subjects living in that city, political parties, as well as all democratic forces in that city. We have intensified our urban reconciliation efforts to work on formulas that will reflect our will in the administrations. We will transform our disruptive power in 2019 into a playmaking force in 2024, and we will take part together as this playmaking force in local governments.

We have stated many times that we will not accept a single equation in which the people are not in control. We underline it once again from here.

We said that we would announce the co-chair candidates of the places where the referendum was held, and after we make these statements both in Kurdistan and in the West, we have to move on to the second stage of our work. DEM Party, we will create a new epic of democracy together in the March 31 elections. There is no stopping for this, we will work day and night. We will work, regardless of snow or winter, and we will be among our people."