WUNRN
TURKEY – WOMEN ARE ACTIVE ADVOCATES FOR RESTORING PEACE IN TURKEY
In the polyphony of voices
insisting on an immediate peace process in Turkey ahead of ‘Peace Day,’ women’s
voices can be heard everywhere more insistently and more adamantly, thanks to a
number of robust initatives
Emrah Güler - ANKARA –
September 12, 2015
At one of the darkest times in
its recent history, with war brewing at home and across the border, Turkey is
due to celebrate “Peace Day” twice in September. An extra World Peace Day on
Sept. 1 is planned to precede the United Nations’ Sept. 21 International Day of
Peace - after all, this is the land of irony.
But although Turkey is time traveling back to the war-torn Turkish-Kurdish
conflict of the 1990s in the southeast, cries for peace in the country have
never sounded louder. Activists, journalists, academics, civil society groups -
not to mention the dozens of grieving parents - are demanding peace at once in
Turkey. The simple slogan “Barýþ Hemen Þimdi” (Peace Now) has never sounded
more urgent.
In the polyphony of voices insisting on an immediate peace process, women’s
voices can be heard everywhere - more insistent and more adamant. Güneþ Daþlý,
Research Coordinator at the Ankara-based Democracy, Peace and Alternative
Policies Research Center (DEMOS), wrote for the upcoming peace campaign of
“Sivil Düþün” (Think Civil), the civil society program run by the Delegation of
the European Union to
Turkey, to bring attention to the increasing polyphony of voices.
“Women have always proved to be the bravest during hard times, during times of
war. Women’s anti-war movements have always stood out,” wrote Daþlý. “Not only
have women have cried against the atrocities of war, but they have taken an
anti-war stance and taken action on how to build peace through a feminist
perspective. Women have taken the greatest toll during times of war, and
offering ways and methods to build peace have helped create a new way of
thinking.”
Initiative Brings Together Women of Peace
Daþlý elaborated on women’s role in restoring peace since the 1990s in the
upcoming article. “The Mothers of Peace brought together the mothers of the
guerillas and the mothers of soldiers decades ago. Their message of peace was
very clear, and it helped shape the public opinion of today’s young mothers of
urban middle class, who bravely speak out against war,” she wrote, adding that
this shows “the impact and power of women’s struggle against war. Kurdish
women’s struggle against the state violence since the 1990s, coupled with the
feminist struggle against military, has established a solid and strong movement
for peace.”
Perhaps the biggest, busiest and best-known women’s initiative to bring and
restore peace in Turkey is the Women for Peace Initiative, founded in 2009 by a
group of diverse women who have been calling for peace since the 1990s. Nükhet
Sirman, Professor of Sociology at Istanbul’s Bosphorus University and one of
the most outspoken members of the initiative, recently wrote about it for the
daily newspaper Evrensel.
“We, the women of Women for Peace Initiative, have been saying since 2009 that
peace needs to come to this country,” wrote Sirman. “Some of us are feminists,
some of us work for women but do not want to call themselves feminists, some of
us are Muslims, some of us refrain from using religion as an identity, some of
us are Alevis, some of us are Marxists, others are liberal, some of us are high
school graduates, others carry graduate degrees. There is one thing we have in
common: We believe that this country needs peace and we are persistent about
it.”
The group has been tirelessly calling for peace through silent protests, press
statements, conferences, forums, as well as dozens of articles, opinion pieces,
and research papers. “We, the women, don’t want wars. We are persistent
about peace,” Sirman wrote. “We have seen that the toll of war has stayed with
us for decades. Just as the women who have been exiled from their villages are
getting used to their new homes, new languages, new neighbors, they have once
again come face to face with the language and voices of the 1990s. This
language, these voices are bringing back the baggage of the last three
decades.”
Women’s messages are loud and clear, and their actions are even more so.