JINHA

ISTANBUL - Peace activists held a noise demo in Istanbul to protest recent massacres and attempts to foment war in Turkey.

Women were out at Istanbul's Eminönü Pier with pots, pans and whistles to protest massacres and attempts at war in Turkey in the wake of the Suruç bombing. On Monday, a bomb exploded at a gathering of youth activists in the town of Suruç, Turkey. The youth were planning to travel to the city of Kobanê, Rojava--which has been devastated by war--to help rebuild the city. 32 died in the explosion.

"They were lovely people," said Nükhet Sirman, speaking at the demonstration about the youth killed in the bombing. "They sold the beads they made with their own plans and with the money they raised, they bought toys to take to Kobanê.

"Some of them had friends and comrades who had lost their lives fighting ISIS in Kobanê; some had friends still on the front. Some of them were going to ask about the health of their friends. Maybe some of them were going to join the fight against ISIS, who recognize no area where women can live. Then they fell one by one like chess pieces. Their corpses lay on the ground. Gas was sprayed at those who tried to pick them up."

Nükhet called the massacre "stealing the country's future." She expressed outrage that there has been no official mourning declared in Turkey for the massacre and that the Parliament has still not assembled to discuss it.

"Who knows better than us that war doesn't just stop where it is, but it spreads to everyone? Who knows better than us that every bullet fired at the front comes back to hit us?" asked Nükhet. She called for all women to struggle against war and to resist massacres that divide women from one another.

"We need to keep their beliefs alive," said Düriye Sezgin, the speaker for the Assemblies of Socialist Women, referring to the youth. Among their plans was taking toys to the children of Kobanê. "We need to get those toys to all the children in the world," she said.

(ödk-dk/dc/cm)