AMED – Young participants at a forum held in Amed (Diyarbakır, Turkey) have stressed the central role of youth in building social peace, describing young people as the main force behind social change and transformation.

 

The “Societal Peace and Freedom Forum”, organised in Amed, concluded with a series of events and workshops. Among them was a session titled “The Role of Youth in Democratic Politics on the Path to Building Peace”, where participants Sibel Kaya and Gaffar Eser spoke about the political and social role of young people.

 

Sibel Kaya said youth in Turkey were increasingly being pushed towards passivity and stripped of political agency, despite representing a social force capable of questioning existing structures.

 

She said: “Young people are being depoliticised and rendered passive. But youth is not shaped by the moulds of the past. It questions the past and has the capacity to create its own forms of action and its own sociology.”

 

She stressed that women and young people are among the strongest carriers of social peace because they embodied social solidarity and collective life.

 

Sibel Kaya said: “They have the potential to feel empathy and justice and turn those feelings into action. That is why the system first seeks to suppress women and youth and eliminate the spaces where they can express themselves.”

 

She described youth as the main force that would shape the future, adding that young people approached the idea of social peace with greater hope than other sections of society.

 

Sibel Kaya said discussions with young people in recent periods had centred on transformation and becoming active political subjects.

 

“As a young person, I believe responding to this process requires educating and transforming oneself,” said Sibel Kaya and added: “Women and youth are the groups most directly targeted by the capitalist system, which makes our role in social peace even more visible.”

 

Emphasizing that opportunities for young people to express themselves had become increasingly restricted, she called for stronger youth participation in democratic politics.

 

She continued: “Today, the platforms where young people can express themselves are being taken away. In the face of a system that suppresses free expression, there is a need for a youth movement capable of defending its ideas in every sphere.”

 

Gaffar Eser also said young people carried significant hope, but warned that hope alone was not enough unless it produced organised results. He said: “Youth carries enormous hope, but that hope must lead to concrete outcomes. One-sided hope can eventually turn into hopelessness and passivity.”

 

Eser stressed the importance of valuing young people’s perspectives, arguing that many young people today felt isolated and alienated. He concluded: “There is a reality in which youth are being suppressed, isolated and made to feel estranged from themselves. If we can analyse this reality, then we must also develop a response to it.”