Continue reading “(Video) PIK Ecology Event on Ecocide and Kurdish Women’s Movement”
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2020 SOLIDARITY
Peace in Kurdistan stands in solidarity on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2020, alongside all Kurdish women, across Kurdistan, in the diaspora, and all who are engaged in the struggle for liberation and for their just democratic rights. We stand with all women fighting for justice and freedom from state violence, who are so often at the forefront of global liberation movements.
In these tragic times with the Kurdish-Turkish conflict well and truly ignited in Syria the struggle of the Kurdish people for their genuine liberation remains as urgent as ever. In the face of systematic violence and state oppression, Kurdish women’s voices and activism are among the loudest and most fearless of the mass popular movement that has emerged over recent decades.
They so often pay the highest price. Women politicians have been deliberately targeted during the conflict, for example, Hervin Khalaf, the secretary general of the Future Syria party, a greatly respected politician and diplomat, who was assassinated by Turkish backed mercenaries in Syria in October 2019. Continue reading “INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2020 SOLIDARITY”
Urgent call to feminists and women’s organisations for solidarity
The call below was issued by the Free Women’s Assembly. They also put together a factsheet about the blockades, which you will find below:
To Women’s Organizations;
Urgent Call for Action
Women’s Freedom Assembly (KÖM) is calling on your solidarity against the war and massacres that we have been living through for the past eight months. The AKP government and President Tayyip Erdoğan are repressing, through violence, all opposition forces who have been resisting the authoritarian regime that they have been trying to establish in Turkey and destroying all channels of political struggle. They have brought the Parliament to disfunction and suspended the rule of law by taking the judiciary system under their control. Continue reading “Urgent call to feminists and women’s organisations for solidarity”
Free Women’s Congress releases report on the war
The Free Women’s Congress (KJA) has released the report below about the impact of the current war against Kurds on the peace process. Also available here are two documents, one giving the names and details of some of the children who have been killed since July last year, and another that gives evidence of the deliberate targeting of Kurdish graveyards by security forces.
REPORT ON THE CONFLICT PROCESS, POLITICAL SITUATION, AND WOMEN IN KURDISTAN
FREE WOMEN’S CONGRESS / KJA
10 January 2016
Peace Negotiations Launched
The dialog and negotiations process for the resolution of the Kurdish Issue, launched at İmralı Island on January 2013, entered a new phase on February 28, 2015 following its announcement in the Dolmabahçe Palace before the press by a mixed delegation of HDP and AKP deputies. The Dolmabahçe Agreement, which pronounced a 10-article roadmap for the negotiations process, has enhanced the hope and commitment for peace among the peoples of Turkey, and Kurds in particular. Continue reading “Free Women’s Congress releases report on the war”
REPAK Information File: Women of Resistance targeted by the state
Below is an excerpt from the latest information file published by the Kurdish Women’s Relations Office (REPAK. It details how women have been targeted by the Turkish state over the last several months.
You can download the full report here
Information File:
‘Women of Resistance Targeted By the State’
Turkish State Terror in Kurdistan and Feminicide
As of 11 January 2016
Contents
I. ‘Fight against terrorism’ or state terror against the people? Political evaluation and call
II. Chronology: Curfews
III. ‘Shoot the women first!’ List of women killed during curfews or by extralegal execution
Continue reading “REPAK Information File: Women of Resistance targeted by the state”
Video: Janet Biehl addresses seminar in London on pedagogy in Rojava
Pedagogy for Revolution: The Case of Rojava
With author Janet Biehl
Public meeting and discussion with author Janet Biehl who talked about the new women’s science of “Jineology” and the revolutionary transformation of education. She has visited Rojava twice and reported on her recent visit. Organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and Roj Women Group at Doughty Street Chambers on 23 October 2015. The meeting was chaired by Elif Sarican, Kurdish Student Union.
Watch: https://vimeo.com/143755823
Pedagogy for Revolution: The Case of Rojava With author Janet Biehl from Saman Gareeb on Vimeo.
“5 minutes to election: What happened during 20 days of PKK inaction in Turkey?”
The Kurdistan Communities of Women (KJK) has published a new information file called 5 minutes to election: What happened during 20 days of PKK inaction in Turkey? which provides a useful summary of events in Kurdistan since the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire on 10 October. The report details an alarming number of state-sponsored attacks on the AKP’s political opposition, including curfews in Kurdish districts, raids on HDP offices and military strikes against the PKK.
The report begins with this statement below and is available to download in full here (pdf).
Continue reading ““5 minutes to election: What happened during 20 days of PKK inaction in Turkey?””
Women warn UK government of dangers to Kurds
On Wednesday 23rd September at 4pm, a delegation of women delivered an open letter signed by a coalition of prominent women’s rights activists to 10 Downing Street. The letter urgently calls on David Cameron to use his influence with the Turkish government to stop the violence being perpetrated against Kurdish civilians in the south east of the country.
The delegation includes Michelle Allison (Kurdistan National Congress), Evrim Yilmaz (Roj Women Assembly) and human rights barrister Melanie Gingell, who has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Cizre, south east Turkey, which has been under curfew for several days and which has been a flashpoint of violence between Turkish security forces and Kurdish civilians in recent weeks.
Cameron has long insisted that Turkey, a NATO partner, is a strong friend to the UK. On his last official visit to Ankara, Cameron stated that Britain and Turkey would work “hand-in-glove” to combat ISIS. And yet he has turned away as the Turkish government used their apparent entry into the anti-ISIS coalition as a veil to break the ceasefire with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and attack Kurdish towns and villages. Continue reading “Women warn UK government of dangers to Kurds”