Sabahat Tuncel: Peace is not just the cessation of weapons

According to Kurdistan Press, Sabahat Tuncel, a member of the Free Women's Movement (TJA), referring to the approval of the framework law in the Turkish parliament, said that this law is an important step towards entering into negotiations, but its approval does not mean its implementation and no concrete practical steps have been taken so far.She identified the end of restrictions imposed on Öcalan, the abolition of the appointment of the governors of elected municipalities and the release of political prisoners as women's demands, and emphasized: "The weapons must be silenced, but peace becomes meaningful when it is accompanied by democratization."

Tuncel said that women experience the consequences of war more deeply than others and, in addition to losing their children, they also face poverty, violence, discrimination and exploitation. She added: "Peace is not just the silence of the weapons. If the gendered, nationalist and religious political order that affects the lives of women, Kurds, Alevis and other oppressed groups does not change, there will be no lasting peace. It cannot be said that the weapons will be silenced, but that the existing order will continue unchanged.»

Sabahat Tuncel also announced the continuation of talks to form a women's monitoring commission, saying that this body, rather than being an official and government commission, will be a commission with social legitimacy that includes women's organizations, civil society activists, academics and women active in politics. According to her, the commission will monitor the peace process, identify the problems of women and people returning from the mountains or Europe, and the obstacles to the participation of released prisoners in political and social life; because "in negotiations where women are not present, decisions are not made in favor of women."