Ceren Karlıdağ/JINHA

IZMIR – The Izmir city government has produced a range of excuses to deny the proposal by women of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to change a militarist street name to honor women killed in femicide.

The opposition party HDP is known for their "right to the city" slogan, "the city is yours." Their grassroots efforts to change the militaristic street names in the city of Izmir to honor victims of femicide has met with a number of procedural roadblocks from the city council, run by the CHP.

With femicides gaining speed across Turkey this past year, women led a grassroots campaign and petition to change astreet name in the city to honor the victims of femicide.The campaign gained widespread support, including from the international feminist action the World March of Women that passed through the city last months.

City council members told the HDPmembers that "HDP members could not make proposals" to the council, although FatmaAcar, HDP regional co-chair, said that when she first informally spoke with council members about the proposal as an individual, she received a positive response.

Meanwhile, the CHP-run city council they were already considering a proposal to rename street names presented by the AKP. The women see this move as a further insult, insofar as the AKP is notorious for encouraging violence against women.

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