WUNRN
Yazidi Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidis#Under_the_Ottoman_Empire
Turkey – First Yazidi Woman Candidate for the
Turkish Parliament
Feleknas
Uca speaks at a campaign event in Diyarbakir, May 2015. (photo by
Twitter/Feleknasuca)
By Fréderike Geerdink - May 5, 2015
"A political action movie" is
how Feleknas Uca, 38, describes politics in Turkish parliament,
referring to macho behavior and physical fights that sometimes break out. She
thinks it will be difficult for her to adjust to it, after having served two
terms, from 1999 to 2009, in the European Parliament in
Brussels. "In Europe," Uca said, "you are respected for
your opinion. In Turkey, politics are carried out undemocratically."
Still, she is eager to start working in the
Turkish parliament after the June 7 general elections. If her
party, the People's Democracy Party (HDP), a leftist party with roots in
the Kurdish political movement, manages to exceed the 10% threshold, she will
for sure occupy one of the orange seats in the "meclis." She is
the fourth HDP candidate for the HDP in Diyarbakir, an HDP
stronghold that is expected to send at least eight or nine representatives to Ankara.
"People are being tortured in this
country," Uca said in an interview with Al-Monitor, "and mothers lose
their children. Working in the Turkish parliament will not be easy, but
compared with what others live through, that is only a small thing."
Uca was born and raised in Celle, a town in
the north of Germany. She is not Muslim like most Kurds, but Yazidi; Yazidis are followers
of an ancient religion originating in Mesopotamia. The family is part of an
8,000-strong local Yazidi community. The
contrast is huge: in the whole of Turkey, less than 1,000 Yazidis remain,
after 80,000 to 100,000 of them, also from Iraq and Syria, left for Europe in
the second half of the 20th century.
Uca, asked why her parents left the town of
Beseri in Batman province more than 40 years
ago, said, "For economic reasons, but because of oppression as
well. Yazidis had no rights in Turkey, and they still don’t. On our identity
cards, it says ‘no religion,' or just an 'X' is put in the religion
section. Yazidi children have to attend the Sunni religious classes in school,
just as other children in Turkey who are not Sunni Muslims, like Alevis. Only a
new Turkish Constitution can solve these problems."
She became politically active at a young age
and became a member of the European Parliament for a leftist group at the
age of 22 in 1999. "I engaged in politics because of the war in
Yugoslavia," she said. "I was against war. After examining all party
programs in detail, I decided to join the leftist PDS [Party of Democratic
Socialism]. I proposed myself as a candidate for the European Parliament a year
later, and was elected."
"It felt like a great success," Uca
said, "to be in the European Parliament as a 22-year-old woman with black
hair and brown eyes. I wanted to be the voice of migrants." In the 10
years that followed, she focused on fighting racism and stood up for women’s
and migrants’ rights in parliament itself, but especially also outside it. She
traveled in Europe and beyond to set up and support projects to battle violence
against women, female genital mutilation
and child marriages.
Turkey, the land of her parents, was never
far away. Since she was around 15 years old, she has been traveling there
regularly as part of the Kurdish movement. She put her knowledge and contacts
to use in Brussels, for example, by co-organizing the first conferences in the
European Parliament about the Kurdish issue in Turkey, set up to monitor
the issue during Turkey’s EU accession talks, which started in 2005. "For
years, I have functioned as a bridge between the EU and Turkey."
Now, she crossed the bridge and landed on the
other side. Since July 2014, she has been living in Diyarbakir, the political
capital of the Kurds in Turkey. The situation of her own people, the Yazidis, has
her special attention. There are some 32,000 of them in Turkey now; 31,000
of them are refugees from Iraq.
Their problems are huge, Uca said,
"5,000 to 7,000 Yazidi women are in the hands of [the Islamic State,
or IS], and the fate of many men who were taken by [IS] remains unknown. A
group of some 15,000 Yazidis didn’t flee from Shengal, insisting on staying on
their historical lands. But it’s dangerous, because [IS] is still not driven
away from there. Fierce battles
continue."
Some of the refugees who came to Turkey have
returned to Mosul and Zakho in Iraq, but many in Turkey are afraid to follow
them, even if Shengal is fully liberated. "They have experienced such
horrible things," Uca said.
She added, "Yazidis who want to stay in
Turkey should be allowed to. They should get a status, like refugees from
Syria. They should not be subject to state assimilation policies."
The latter is a sensitive subject. In the
refugee camps for Yazidis run by the Kurdish movement, efforts are made to
offer education in Kurdish, the Yazidis’ mother tongue. "But we don’t get
any help from the state. Municipalities are paying, the DBP [the HDP’s sister
party, active in the Southeast of Turkey] is contributing and civilians
help out. But it’s not enough."
Similar problems exist in health care: since
the Yazidis lack any official status, they are only entitled to health care if
their life is directly in danger. "We have set up a system with doctors
who work voluntarily. They visit people in the refugee camps. But problems
arise when somebody needs treatment in a hospital."
What it boils down to is that Uca has come to
Turkey for the same reason as she once started in politics: to work for peace.
"I want to contribute to the peace process in Turkey. Change something in
this country. More democracy, the strengthening of the youth and development of
the regional economy, women’s rights." She said the HDP is aiming at
15% of the vote, but anything above the crucial 10% is fine. She already
announced she wants to take the parliamentary oath in
both Kurdish and Turkish. "Kurdish is my mother tongue," she said, "and
I am trying to quickly improve my Turkish now. I think every language you learn
is an enrichment."
When confronted with the severe problems that
women in the Southeast still face, such as child marriages and honor killings,
she said, "These problems have significantly decreased since the
Kurdish movement has been active. In the Kurdish movement, the women explicitly
step forward, come out of their houses. Women’s problems haven’t been solved
yet, true, and that’s why we keep working on it. You can’t change a patriarchal
society overnight."
When asked whether she misses Germany or not,
Uca said, "My family is there; of course I miss them. But you know, I
have a family, and they support me. I can call them and talk to them any time I
want. Do you know how many people are not that lucky?"