Activities to mark 8 March, International Women’s Day, in Kurdistan commenced in Cizre district of Şırnak yesterday, with a rally held by thousands of women at the Çerkendal Square.

Gathering in front of the DBP Cizre branch office, thousands of women marched to Çerkendal Sqaure, chanting slogans for freedom. The call for the march had been issued by the Free Women’s Congress, KJA.

Democratic Society Congress co-chair Selma Irmak spoke first at the rally and said: “The grounds of the negotiation process and women’s revolution have been laid by Kurdish women.” Irmak stressed the importance of the stage reached in the resolution process, adding that the Kurdish women’s struggle had played a crucial role in the transformation of the peace talks into a formal negotiation process.

Irmak further stressed that the joint statement of the government and the HDP on 27 Feb. announcing the start of formal negotiations was a historic step gained by the struggle of the Kurdish people, adding that the government must take further steps before the Kurdish Liberation Movement lays down its arms. Irmak said they had already removed arms with the ceasefire in order to open the way for democracy, adding that the armed struggle was a necessity as no other choice had been left to the Kurdish movement previously. Irmak stressed that the Kurdish movement had demonstrated its determination to solve the Kurdish question by negotiations to be carried out around a table, and added that the AKP government however had not taken any concrete steps until recently. She said this announcement is also an opportunity for the government to take democratic steps.

Speaking next, HDP Kars deputy Mülkiye Birtane narrated the history of 8 March and also added at the end of her speech that Kurdish women support the new process initiated by the Kurdish Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

HDP Van deputy Aysel Tuğluk also made a speech at the rally, saying that the women of Cizre have demonstrated the true meaning of 8 March in their lives and through their struggle and saluted the women of Cizre whom she called one of the leading forces of the Kurdish struggle. Tuğluk said a resolution will be effected through the spirit of resistance as it has always been waged in Cizre and added that women have to take an active part in the process for a dignified peace to be achieved. Tuğluk stressed that women have to get organised in order to defend their identity as well as against the murders of women and male violence. Tuğluk recalled the historic struggle of the YPJ fighters and saluted their resistance in Kobane, adding that women have been the leading force of the revolution in Kurdistan.

The deputy Minister of Women of the Cizire (Jazireh) Canton of Rojava, Hivra Eroba, was welcomed by applause as she made the last speech at the rally, saying that she brought the greetings of the YPJ fighters to the women of Cizre. Eroba said the resistance of the women in Rojava was made possible by the resistance of the women in North Kurdistan, adding that if the women of Rojava can pay an official visit to France in their own dress, this comes through the struggle of the women themselves, of the YPJ fighters. Eroba said women must develop and further improve self-defence mechanisms, adding that it is only the self-defence of women that can prevent massacres like in Sinjar or being abducted like the Assyrian women recently in Til Hemir. Eroba finally said that the 21st century is being made the century of women and will certainly be the women’s century. 

The rally ended with the songs and the performances of the traditional Kurdish folk dance, halay.