JINHA

ISTANBUL – In a meeting at Istanbul's Taksim Hill Hotel yesterday, women of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) released a Women's Election Manifesto.

The party's women candidates, who make up 48% of the HDP's electoral list for the June 7th election, came together under signs and purple balloons declaring the party's woman-centered approach to overcoming Turkey's high 10% electoral threshold that keeps opposition parties out of Parliament. Figen Yüksekdağ, general co-chair of the party, read the six-part manifesto before a crowd of women, who started the day by ululating and dancing traditional halay dances in the hotel.

The ceremony opened in Kurdish, Turkish, Zazaki, Laz and Armenian. Figen Yüksekdağ began her speech by honoring all women who lost their lives resisting male violence, from the women fighting Daesh to the women lost to femicide.

"Resisting women are the light before us, the torch guiding our path," said Figen Yüksekdağ, speaking before the convocation of HDP women. "We will never forget the women resisting in Kobanê and Şengal." The women present cried out "woman, life, freedom" and "long live the Kobanê resistance."

Figen stressed that the women who prepared this manifesto came out of a tradition of struggle. The HDP's women candidates for Parliament include representatives of the Kurdish movement, environmental struggle, workers' and union movements, anti-domestic violence activists and critical Islamic writers.

"This manifesto was prepared by a very lively, convinced and enthusiastic women's collective," she explained. Calling the manifesto a product of women's combined strength, she said that "women will be the fundamental power in Turkey."

The HDP announced its general manifesto on Tuesday and released the women-prepared women manifesto yesterday. "These are not promises," said Figen, of the manifesto. "We are not promising, but producing."

In addition to the HDP candidates for the Marmara region and the Peace Mothers, notable women from the HDP and its allied organizations all assembled in downtown Istanbul for the occasion. Selma Irmak of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) and Emine Ayna of the HDP-allied Democratic Regions Party (DBP) were among the attendees. Current HDP Istanbul MP and member of the İmralı Delegation Pervin Buldan was also present, as was Sebahat Tuncel, HDP MP from Istanbul and the co-speaker of the Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK).

(ekip/ed/fk/cm)