JINHA

AMED - A group of women has successfully stopped construction on a new military installation in Dargeçit, Turkey.

The district of Dargeçit (Kerboran in Kurdish) includes areas that would be flooded by a planned dam on the Tigris River, the Ilısu Dam. The dam construction process has been marked by heightened militarization of the area. Soldiers have been seizing private lands to build the military installations. The soldiers were able to take this action in part because the recently passed "Internal Security Law" gives the state wide-ranging power.

When women in Dargeçit learned that soldiers were beginning construction on three more so-called "security cottages" (small military installations scattered throughout the area) in the area, they started a sit-in. The women's group Congress of Free Women (KJA) and the women's peace association the Peace Mothers Assembly led the sit-in, which started Tuesday evening.

Yesterday, women announced at a press conference that soldiers had agreed to stop construction and that they were ending the sit-in. Women promised to ensure that the soldiers followed through on their promise.

"We won't allow sentry posts in Dargeçit or anyone else," said Zeynep Sipçik, the co-mayor of Dargeçit, who had joined the demonstration. "As long as there continues to be construction of sentry posts, we will go as human shields to stop it."

The Peace Mothers, a group of women affected by war in the region who now work for peace, have been the main leaders of the demonstration. Peace Mother Delal Yılmaz said, "These kinds of 'cottages' need to be stopped; there needs to be a climate of peace."

"We want to walk around freely in our gardens and not feel ourselves to be constantly under military pressure," said Peace Mother Nure Akar. "They surrounded the dam on all sides with sentry posts; we don't want the dam or the sentry posts, either."

(bc-mg/gc/mg/cm)