Mizgin Tabu-Eylem Daş/JINHA

ISTANBUL – In her first interview ever, Ceylan Bağrıyanık, the woman's movement activist who sits on the İmralı Delegation meeting with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, said the meetings are a historical step for the women's movement and the peace process.

"As the women's movement, we take the side of women and our basic approach is to bring a healthy and woman-centered perspective to the process of negotiations," Ceylan said. She said the inclusion of the women's movement in the process has been something Abdullah Öcalan has struggled for extensively over the years.

According to UN Women research, peace negotiations in which women take part are 64% more likely to end in a lasting peace.But the Turkish state has long put up borders to the participation of civil society organizations in the meetings with Öcalan, imprisoned for 16 years on İmralı Island in the Marmara Sea.

When for years even Öcalan's lawyers have been arbitarily denied access to the island, the fact that civil society activists like Ceylan have been able to take part in the discussions is a historic step. The Saturday announcement from the peace process was the first ever joint announcement between government representatives and non-state representatives fromİmralı Delegation.

Ceylan Bağrıyanık says the first thing the İmralı Delegation told her when she joined their ranks was "we have worked so hard to get you here." The delegation saw the effort to bring women activists like Ceylan into the negotiations as central to the success of the peace process.

"The idea of having a representative from the women's movement was actually an idea that came from Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdish people," said Ceylan, who is currently a member of the Congress of Free Women (KJA). She reported that the liberation of women will be the first topic on the agenda as negotiations get underway in earnest.

Ceylan said that for the women's movement,it was clear that even if peace was achieved, it would be fragile. This was part of what drove the KJA to seek a seat at the table.

"Of course it's important for a woman to take part in the peace and negotiations process, but I think it's much more important that it's an organized women's movement taking part," she said. The KJA first held long internal debates, then met with other women's organizations about how exactly to push for the goal of women's liberation in Kurdistan and Turkey through participation in negotiations. Now, the Women's Liberation Committee will hold a workshop at the end of the month to involve all women in the discussion.

Currently, according to Ceylan, the most urgent priority for the peace process to move forward is the discussion of the 10 basic areas of action that the participants announced on Saturday. The 10 points, drafted by Abdullah Öcalan, were a minimum, fundamental declaration of the priorities for democratizing politics, she said. Now a broader conversation on the points needs to get underway.

Ceylan stressed that Abdullah Öcalan sees the peace process as "a process for the democratization of society and politics in Turkey, not just a place where state officials direct limited conversations of conditions."

For many KJA activists, it has been a dream to meet with Abdullah Öcalan, according to Ceylan. The PKK leader has written extensively on the centrality of women to the struggle for democracy while in prison, but hasn't been able to meet with the women engaging with his philosophy on the ground.

"We were all excited for the meeting—will it be today, will it be tomorrow? That lasted a long time," she said. "When I first met with him it was a historic moment, not just for me but for the entire women's movement. Before we went into the room, I heard him talking with the people from the delegation.

"When I went in I was so excited, I didn't know what to do. Mr. Öcalan said 'come in' and while we shook hands he said: 'I had to struggle so much to get you here. Bringing you here was harder than changing the state mindset. So it's a historic day.'"

The first topic of discussion in their meeting was the problem of femicide in Turkey. They talked about how to produce free spaces for women to prevent these kinds of massacres, which have come to national and international attention in Turkey since the murder of Özgecan Aslan in Mersin province.

"I can say that Mr. Öcalan was really happy to see a representative of the organized women's movement there," said Ceylan.

(fk/cm)