JINHA

AMED – Speaking on the killing of three Kurdish women politicians in Silopi on Monday, Figen Yüksekdağ, general co-chair of the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party), said that the women’s resistance would be a guide for others.

The town of Silopi has been under a total blockade by Turkish state forces for 24 days. On Monday evening, three Kurdish women politicians were targeted and killed in the Karşıyaka neighborhood of the town. The three women were Sêvê Demir (assembly member of the Democratic Regions Party), Pakize Nayır (co-chair of the Silopi People’s Assembly), and KJA activist Fatma Uyar.

Speaking at a press conference at the headquarters of the DBP in the city of Diyarbakır, Figen Yüksekdağ (co-chair of the HDP, Peoples’ Democratic Party) and Sebahat Tuncel (co-speaker of the political organization Peoples’ Democratic Congress) spoke about the killing. Figen Yüksekdağ began by sending greetings to all women resisting for self-government. She said that resistance for self-government was resistance for life, a resistance in which women take the leading role.

“They were martyred while in the midst of a very natural, pure resistance. In this resistance, women and life came together. They were martyred in the midst of the calm and simplicity with which women unite with life. Just the way that they sing a folk song, dance a folk dance, or cook bread in the oven outside their house,” said Figen. “To resist as they did, to live as they did, to live the way they showed us: this is our greatest promise.”

Figen condemned the fact that snipers, tanks and heavy artillery have targeted and killed women in areas where self-government has been declared.

“They want to attack the living arteries of this people by spilling women’s blood,” said Figen. “But we will be the blood flowing in those veins, with all the decisiveness of women in resistance.”

Sebahat Tuncel, the co-speaker of the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), also spoke.

“Representatives of the patriarchal system are killing women; they are killing political women,” said Sebahat. She said that the three women in Silopi were slainfor carrying on the struggle of women who resisted before, like the three Kurdish women murdered in Paris three years ago.

“We are saying to the women of Turkey and the world: to remain silent is to approve of this. If you won’t stand up now, when?” she said.

(be-ny/gc/cm)