Ceren Karlıdağ/ JINHA

İZMİR - Women must declare their conscientious objection to war in Turkey in order to stop the ongoing massacres, according to conscientious objector Pınar Demir.

In 1989, the first person in history declared conscientious objection to mandatory military service in Turkey. In 2004, women added a new dimension to the struggle by beginning to declare themselves conscientious objectors.

Some have criticized the women's conscientious objection movement, as military service is not required of women in Turkey. However, the women of the conscientious objection movement say that their target is not simply the limited institution of mandatory military service, but rather the patriarchal militarist mindset throughout society.

Pınar Demir is one of the women who has declared herself a conscientious objector. She sums up her decision by quoting Emma Goldman: "All wars are wars among thieves who are too cowardly to fight, and therefore induce the young manhood of the whole world to do the fighting for them."

Pınar noted that the ruling AKP is likewise happy to send other people's children to war, while they exclude their own children by paying the fee that excuses men from military service in Turkey. She said that mandatory military service constituted the state's refusal of the right to life.

"Even before the clashes started, there were killings and suspicious deaths covered up as suicides among soldiers," said Pınar. "But recently, there's been a cry that we haven't heard before. Now there are families of soldiers who are saying, 'we won't wish condolences to the nation anymore.' There are soldiers deserting. This is the most basic illustration of why we need conscientious objection to be recognized as a right.

"Mandatory military service means being a life that can be sacrificed for the state and in the situation now, the state has no problem using these lives like public property and using them without mercy," said Pınar. "Maybe we [women] don't go to mandatory military service; we aren't detained by the state for a certain period. But our military service continues for our entire life," she said. "The state patriarchal militarist mindset has us under siege on every side."

Pınar referred to the Kurdish woman guerrilla Kevser Eltürk (nom de guerre Ekin Wan), whose body was stripped naked and displayed by police. She noted that Ekin Wan's last words were: "whoever raises their hand against women, break that hand."

"We need to liberate our lives under siege. We are people who from the moment we are born have our bodies and our lives under siege by men. Like Ekin Wan said, we need to break that siege and break that hand," said Pınar. She said it was necessary now for women to declare conscientious objection and for mothers to refuse to send their sons to war.

"Women need to say 'no' to mandatory military service, for an all-out struggle for freedom," said Pınar.

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