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 I would like to share with you this text from TJA, “Tevgera Jinên Azad”, Free Wom­en’s Movement. 

TJA (Tevgera Jinên Azad)

On 22 May 2020 Turk­ish spe­cial oper­a­tion forces detained TJA activists and mem­bers and exec­u­tives of the Rosa Women’s Asso­ci­a­tion — also TJA activists — storm­ing their homes after mid­night, and break­ing down their doors. They imposed a 24-hour gag order on the case file and pro­vid­ed no infor­ma­tion to any­one for a whole day. They raid­ed the office of the Rosa Women’s Asso­ci­a­tion and con­fis­cat­ed their offi­cial doc­u­ments in the absence of their lawyers. The Rosa Women’s Asso­ci­a­tion was estab­lished after all women’s orga­ni­za­tions in Amed were closed by gov­ern­men­tal decrees in 2016; it is  the only women’s orga­ni­za­tion involved in sup­port work and active strug­gle against vio­lence per­pe­trat­ed against women.

Lawyers who were present when pros­e­cu­tors took state­ments have informed us that our friends are being asked ques­tions such as :

Why did you orga­nize the March 8th ral­ly? What was your aim?

Why did you make state­ments to the press  about the replace­ment of may­ors by gov­ern­ment appoint­ed trustees? What was your aim?

Why did you sup­port the activ­i­ties by Peace Moth­ers press­ing the State to accept the human­i­tar­i­an demands of the hunger strikers?

All the state­ments the activists have made regard­ing women and women’s strug­gle are being ren­dered ille­gal and  crim­i­nal­ized. They have even been asked to answer why women’s orga­ni­za­tions and asso­ci­a­tions sup­port one anoth­er. They were con­front­ed with the ques­tion: “What is the rela­tion­ship between TJA and the Rosa Women’s Asso­ci­a­tion? Why are they sup­port­ing one another?”

Women’s right to freely asso­ciate in inde­pen­dent orga­ni­za­tions is being con­sid­ered as an incrim­i­nat­ing issue. All uses of the right to free­dom of expres­sion in favour of women’s free­dom are being treat­ed as incrim­i­nat­ing evi­dence.  Here and now, using the rights to free­dom of orga­ni­za­tion and expres­sion which are guar­an­teed under inter­na­tion­al law and States, has  become a crime lead­ing to the arrest of women.

Press state­ments made in the course of our strug­gle against vio­lence against women, our activ­i­ty with the mot­to “co-chair sys­tem is our pur­ple line” have become sub­jects of inter­ro­ga­tion. “Where is Gülis­tan” actions to protest the absence of any seri­ous effort to find Gülis­tan Doku who was dis­ap­peared in Der­sim have become sub­jects of interrogation.

The pros­e­cu­tors are declar­ing the fol­low­ing slo­gans ille­gal and incrim­i­nat­ing our friends: Jin jiyan aza­di, Don’t inter­fere with our free will, No to iso­la­tion, Where is Gülis­tan Doku, Women want peace, Co-chair sys­tem is our pur­ple line. Anoth­er incrim­i­nat­ing ele­ment is the ban­ner say­ing: Femi­cides are polit­i­cal — TJA.

It is no longer a secret that tap­ping pri­vate phones is being used to frame peo­ple. One of our woman friends was chal­lenged about a phone con­ver­sa­tion. A friend called her and said, “how are you?” She replied “how can I be. I am not well, war has start­ed again.” We are faced with a state mind­set which would have peo­ple pro­hib­it­ed even from express­ing pri­vate­ly that they are against war and for peace.

These attacks show that the AKP-MHP gov­ern­ment is intent on con­tin­u­ing as a misog­y­nist, mil­i­taris­tic, racist, sex­ist and monist gov­ern­ment exploit­ing reli­gion. Being a woman, being Kur­dish, liv­ing in Kur­dish geog­ra­phy results in a three­fold increase in oppres­sion. TJA is fac­ing attack because it oppos­es the floor­ing in the Par­lia­ment of the draft law to par­don child mar­riages and to par­don rapists which agree to mar­ry the child. If chil­dren are con­sid­ered eli­gi­ble to mar­ry on their own sol­id judg­ment, why is the right to uni­ver­sal suf­frage only grant­ed at 18? Putting chil­dren in the posi­tion of giv­ing birth is in fact the atroc­i­ty of this century.

As the TJA our response to the ques­tion about our aim in orga­niz­ing thr 8th of March ral­ly is a col­lec­tive one. We are orga­niz­ing the 8th of March against wom­enslaugh­ter and femi­cide, against rape and sex­u­al abuse, against gen­der inequal­i­ty, being forced to mar­ry as chil­dren, against child abuse, reli­gion­ism, racism, sex­ism, against State appoint­ed trustees who vio­late wom­en’s right to elect and be elect­ed, against iso­la­tion, war, exploita­tion of labor and patri­archy. If this is a crime, then we are all com­mit­ting this crime. We here­by invite all to stand up for TJA.

The names of TJA activists is deten­tion are: Rosa Wom­en’s Asso­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent Adalet Kaya, found­ing mem­bers Ayla Akat Ata, Nar­in Gezgör and asso­ci­a­tion exec­u­tive Fat­ma Gül­tekin, Gül­ci­han Şimşek and Zelal Bil­gin, Özlem Gündüz, Remziye Sızıcı, Gönül Aslan, Sevim Coşkun, Nevriye Çur, Nazile Tur­sun, Diyarbakır Peace Moth­ers’ Assem­bly mem­ber Hav­va Kıran.

tja

tja

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Zehra Doğan
Auteure, mem­bre d’hon­neur de Kedistan
Jour­nal­iste, artiste. Jour­nal­ist, artist. Gazete­ci, sanatçı.