JINHA

ANKARA – With Turkey's Parliament's 25th session starting with a historic amount of woman representatives, the Women's Group of opposition party Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has called for a new parliamentary division to be founded for women.

The HDP won a major victory in Turkey's June 7th, sending 80 MPs—40% of them women—to Turkey's Parliament. Turkey's Parliament now has its highest-ever number of women representatives. With many representatives in the HDP coming from a long history in the women's movement, expectations are high.

Yesterday, the HDP Women's Group met for the first time in Ankara. As its first action, the group has moved to recommend that Turkey's Parliament form a Parliamentary Women's Group. The new body in the Parliament would provide allow women representatives to develop policy in an all-women space and secure women's further participation in decision-making processes. The group would also have duties and responsibilities outside the bounds of the Parliament.

(gc/mg/cm)