JINHA

NEWS CENTER – Several leading lights of Turkey's women's movement, elected in the June 7 election, are now preparing to take to the Parliament. New MP Çağlar Demirel, commenting on the election to JINHA, has promised to bring the women's struggle to Parliament.

Diyarbakır MP Çağlar Demirel, speaking with JINHA's Şeyma Güzel, called the HDP's overcoming of Turkey's high electoral threshold based on a gender parity principle a milestone for women in Turkey. The HDP will be sending 32 women representatives to Parliament; women make up 40% of the slate. Çağlar is a veteran of the women's movement in Kurdistan. She sees women's struggle as a major factory in the victory.

"Our women's struggle isn't just in Kurdistan; as Kurdish women, while we've reached an important dynamic in Kurdistan, we also organized with women across Turkey," said Çağlar, who identifies herself as a representative of the women's movement above all else. Her priorities include women's advancement in the social sphere, in economic policies, in health and in education.

Çağlar has been meeting with and working with women victims of the bomb attack on the Diyarbakır HDP rally since day one. "Even though they were wounded, they asked, 'How will we vote?'" she said. "We are respectful of this belief. We are going to serve them so that we can bring them peace."

(fk)