The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) presented its women co-mayoral candidates at an event organised in Amed (Diyarbakır) today. Speaking at the presentation event, DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları started her speech by greeting the imprisoned women politicians in prison. Hatimoğulları said, "We send our greetings and love to all our women comrades who are held hostage in prison. We promise that our struggle will continue until we break down those walls and melt those iron bars."

Tülay Hatimoğulları pointed out that all women have come to this day by joining hands and said, "If we are in this hall, we owe it to the history of women's struggle against the 5 thousand years of male-dominated system, especially feudalism. We owe it to Kurdish women, we owe it to Turkish women. We owe it to the struggle of all women living in this region."

The Co-Chair of the DEM Party further stated the following:

"The primary elections we have held are a plebiscite that will be an example not only for Turkey but for the whole world. We have all witnessed the primaries that parties simply hold. We have also held similar primaries in the past. In this voting we held, not only DEM Party members, but also our friends who were executives in the past, all the democratic forces and dynamics of that city took part. In fact, we have implemented what we call urban consensus. We have ensured the manifestation of direct democracy. Because the people chose the candidates by their own will, and this is a very valuable thing. Nearly 5 thousand friends and comrades laboured and worked for this plebiscite. In your presence, we would like to extend our endless thanks to our comrades who worked for it.

We are doing politics in an atmosphere where our geography is surrounded by wars and barrels pointed at the peoples, in a phase where warships are positioned everywhere, especially in the Red Sea. Yes, we are in very difficult conditions. While doing politics at a time when fascist, racist, nationalist, male-dominated currents rule the world, the difficulties we experience are present in the practice of all of us. We are women who have been oppressed and exploited for 5 thousand years. We know this very well; when fascist and racist movements come to power, the oppression and exploitation of women increases exponentially. This is exactly what we are experiencing in Turkey right now. One side of us is the war, the other side is the deepest exploitation and oppression by the AKP-MHP government. As dear Gültan Kışanak said, 'we, as women, will make our greatest career by tearing down their tyrannical power. It is our promise to all our comrades'.

I salute all the women all over the world, from Chile to Argentina, from Tahrir Square to Rojava, from Baghdad to Hewlêr, who say 'we do not obey, we do not submit, we fight. Greetings to the Klara Zetkins, Roza Luxemburgs, Behice Borans, Şirin Tekellis, Sakines, Sevês, Hevrîn Xelefs. Thousands of greetings to them. We promise them that in the 31 March elections, we will win the municipalities one by one, especially with the female candidates, send the trustees away one by one, settle accounts with the trustee mentality, and strengthen democracy at the local level with the approach of a democratic ecological municipalism and women's libertarian local government. Most of the responsibility falls on us. We promise that on the evening of 31 March, we will present the victory of 31 March as a gift to all women who have paid the price, who have been martyred for this cause, to all women in prison, to our mothers on hunger strike, to our mothers on Justice Vigil, to our mothers who do not give up saying 'peace' even after receiving the remains of their children by post. I wish you all success."