JINHA

AMED – After the arrest of HDP parliamentary representatives late last night, the Women’s Assemblies of the HDP and HDK and women’s congress KJA have made a call for “nonstop resistance” for their victories. “With the knowledge that women’s struggle for liberation is the only guarantee of democracy, we have decided to stand up for our victory and our struggle with nonstop resistance. We await the support of all women’s organizations,” said the women in a statement.

The Women’s Assembly of the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party); the Women’s Assembly of the HDK (Peoples’ Democratic Congress); and the KJA (Congress of Free Women) have issued a written statement regarding the unlawful attacks on 12 parliamentary representatives of the HDP, including the party’s general co-chairs. The Women’s Assemblies and Congress of Free Women called for nonstop resistance for their victories.

“While the palace and the AKP government talk ceaselessly of ‘national will’ and ‘democracy,’ last night, their fascist forces raided the homes of our General Co-Chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, whose locations, addresses, voices, and words are well-known and whose schedules are shared every day with the press. Along with our general co-chairs, nine of our parliamentary representatives who continue to work as lawmakers in Parliament were arrested on trumped-up charges,” said the statement. The women noted that both in Turkey and in the Middle East, the AKP government was engaged in foul bargaining and war in order to reach their colonial aims, and now felt the need for a one-man dictatorship and centralized political system in order to continue these policies. They state that from the time it was founded, the HDP had stood in the way of a centralized system and become an effective opposition force on behalf of life, peace, labor, nature, and gender-equal policies.

“We as women are declaring once more that we will not abandon our principled stand against repression, cruelty, and imprisonment; and that we will defend universal values of life, ecology, peace, equality, justice, and freedom no matter what. It is only us women who can speak, made decisions, and act regarding our bodies, identities, willpower, and labor, and we are not surrendering this right to anyone,” said the women.

“With the knowledge that women’s struggle for liberation is the only guarantee of democracy, we have decided to stand up for our victory and our struggle with nonstop resistance. We await the support of all women’s organizations. With the strength, hope, and dignity that we gain from the history of women’s struggle, women’s solidarity, women’s willpower, and women’s comradeship… here we are!”