JINHA

RIHA –PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan released a message for March 8, World Women's Day, saying in a statement read to women taking part in the border resistance across the border from Kobanê that the women's struggle is the heart and soul of his work in the negotiation process.

"The 5,000-year patriarchal culture is rape culture," he said, emphasizing that the issue of women is a cultural, political, economic and sociological problem. "We are trying to incite women to rebel as free women against their 9,000-year oppression."

The Congress of Free Women (KJA) called a rally for March 8, International Women's Day, in the village of Mehser, along the border with Kobanê. Ceylan Bağrıyanık, the KJA activist who serves on the delegation meeting with Öcalan and the first women's movement civil society activist on the delegation, read the statement from Öcalan.

In the 10-point draft for the peace process he recently released, said Öcalan, the issue of women was listed as the first point for a reason.He said it was also critical and important for him that women were taking part in the peace process.

"The relationship between women's liberation and democracy is very clear. As I've said before, I cannot be a member of a state in a country where this many women are killed. The solution will happen with the equality of women and liberatory legislation."

"The passion for freedom was born here," he said, in a statement read to thousands of women assembled just across the border from Kobanê.

The announcement touched on the need for free and equal relationships between men and women in society as the foundation of the new social contract.

"I don't deny love, affection, the family. Being tied to these things is a noble tie. But without a free way of life, these things have no meaning." He said true beauty was found in the lives of liberated women.

"My women comrades have been my most important supporters over the last 30 years. My dialogue and agreement with women is important. You, as women, will develop social consensus. There needs to be consensus against femicide, but also female circumcision, rape and other related phenomena.

"You have to tackle this in a profound way. Don't trust men. Destroy male dogmatism. Trust your womanhood. Equality and freedom will be ensured through the women's issue. This is why our revolution is a women's revolution.

"There is no life without women. There is no ethics, no aesthetics without freedom." He said that ethics for him referred to women's power to choose.

The leader stressed that women "belong to themselves" and that it was unacceptable to see them as the mere wife of a husband, the daughter of a father or the sister of a brother. He also referenced Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statement that all women should have three children.

"Three children means marriage at a young age. He's saying this very consciously and I'm speaking very consciously," said Öcalan. "Let's see if his understanding wins or if we do."

"The slogan that women use, 'we can't be free unless Öcalan is free,' is a good one," he said. "Because I am free. And you will be too. I have immense trust in you, the women in resistance.

"I believe that the 21^st century will be the century of women's liberation," he said.

"The spirit of resistance shown by Arin Mirkan in Kobanê gave me a glimpse of a new way of life, a new civilization," the PKK leader said. "To all of you brave women waging the struggle for liberation, I send you my greetings and say happy March 8, International Women's Day."

(ekip/mç/fk/cm)