The Women and the Constitution Commission established by the Free Women's Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad-TJA) organised a press conference at Cemil Paşa Mansion to call for the participation of women in the commission in the process of drafting the new constitution. "There is no solution without law, no law without women" banner was hung up and many women representatives of organisations attended the press conference.

 

The statement was read in Kurdish by Mesopotamia Language and Culture Research Association (MED-DER) Instructor Dilan Şeveşoğlu and in Turkish by TJA activist Ayla Akat Ata.

 

LAST 40 YEARS 

 

The statement reads as follows: For the past 40 years, Turkey’s political, social, and cultural landscape has been shaped by the conflict around the Kurdish question. The most recent Kurdish uprising has profoundly influenced political struggles, social movements, and alliance-building in Turkey. The women’s liberation movement in Turkey, with all its diverse components, has played a crucial role in articulating and spreading the discourse of peace—insisting that peace is not just a matter of security negotiated at the top, but a political and social issue to be constructed from below.

 

Today, the struggle to socialize peace and build it from the grassroots stands before us, women, as an urgent, powerful, and burning matter. Socializing peace is not a single demand or one-time act, but rather a persistent, long-term effort that requires weaving alliances and expanding networks of solidarity. Women in this region have endured immense violence at the intersection of patriarchy, capitalism, militarism, chauvinism, and religious fundamentalism—and have resisted fiercely. From femicides to poverty, from hate crimes to erasure, from the expropriation of women’s labor to intensifying sexism, the past decade has been a deeply difficult one. Each failed or aborted peace process has been followed by a stronger wave of militarism, war, violence, chauvinism, and nationalism. This is why the last ten years have brought enormous destruction. Yet, despite everything, we never stopped struggling. On the basis of this accumulated resistance, we now put forward clear and concrete demands against war-making politics: ending the practice of state- appointed trustees (kayyums), abolishing the Anti-Terror Law, freeing all political prisoners (especially the sick and elderly), decriminalizing politics, and returning to the Istanbul Convention. These demands are the product of collective struggle.

 

DEMANDS OF WOMEN 

 

The women’s freedom movement is both the bearer of these demands and one of the key actors in any peace process. In this sense, it is fully aware of the decisive importance of the peace and democratic society framework outlined by Mr. Abdullah Öcalan as the chief negotiator of the process, and it considers the effort to socialize peace as its essential political duty. Moreover, peacebuilding is not limited to Turkey alone: it is directly tied to the lives, political will, and security of Kurds across all four parts, including Rojava. For this reason, we will resist militarist initiatives and military operations both inside Turkey and across borders, and we will strive to build a broad peace coalition together with our internationalist allies. Aware that peacebuilding is a long-term process, we take on this mission with the legacy of those we have lost for an honorable peace, and with the hope of a new and equal world. We know the weight of our task, and we are preparing for a long march worthy of that weight.

 

Today, from women to the broad working classes, from Alevis to the Kurdish people, from political prisoners to youth, from LGBTI+ people to minoritized groups—everyone in Turkey needs peace and democracy. The Kurdish freedom movement remains committed to building a peace program that unites all the oppressed, the exploited, and the struggling in Turkey under a common socialist- democratic vision. Women are at the forefront of this struggle—because they experience most acutely the violence of war, militarism, nationalism, capitalism, patriarchy, religious fundamentalism, gender and sexual orientation discrimination, and colonialism, and because they fight with the strongest desire for another world and liberation. For this reason, women will raise their voices for open political channels, for legal frameworks enabling a solution, and for bold political steps. We know that peace, democratic society, and a new democratic foundation are possible—and that many sectors of society already demand them in different ways. Our goal is to unify these voices.

 

While a new constitution may not be the most immediate demand of today’s peace agenda, it remains a crucial one. The 1982 constitution, drafted by the military junta, has been the foundation of all anti-democratic practices over the past 40 years. Changing it has long been a central demand not only of the Kurdish freedom movement but of many political movements. The debate on a new constitution is vital for two reasons: first, it represents the possibility for wide sectors of Turkish society to discuss a new, democratic, and equal social contract as a final legal-political text. Second, in all peacebuilding processes, such a constitution serves as the legal and political framework in which the vision of equal coexistence after conflict takes shape.

 

As TJA (Tevgera Jinên Azad), we rely on our own strength, our political line, and our deep relations with the broader women’s movement. At the negotiating table, we want to be the voice and words of all women who believe in peace and struggle for its socialization in Turkey. Without leaving anyone behind, we aim to bring women’s rightful demands—from trade union rights to Kurdish status, from rejecting denial and assimilation to defending workers’ gains, from rejecting the reduction of women’s existence to family roles—to the constitutional debate. We know that peace and democratic society can only flourish on a strong legal and political ground. We will therefore fight to the end for the creation of this ground, both for democratization and peacebuilding, and for a new social contract.

 

Our call is to all women who believe in peace: come with your faith, your concerns, your expectations, and your criticisms—let us strengthen one another through debate and make our voices a collective one. The Kurdish women’s movement has the experience to lead this debate. It is determined to bring women’s voices into the constitutional discussion and to call on all women of this land, in this critical political moment, to join in the common struggle for peacebuilding. We firmly believe that the equal coexistence of all the oppressed, exploited, and struggling people of these lands will be built under the leadership of women. Our call is to all women who share this belief."

 

Statement ended with applauses and slogans.