The Free Women's Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad-TJA) organized an event in Van province to celebrate 8 March International Working Women's Day under the slogan ‘We rebel against femicide, we march to freedom’. Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları and Pervin Buldan, a member of the İmralı Delegation, also attended the rally.

Addressing the crowd, Neslihan Şedal, Co-Mayor of Van Metropolitan Municipality, who was removed from office and replaced by a trustee along with Abdullah Zeydan, said: “Women have been fighting the male state in the squares for years. Women have been defending their language and culture for years and responding to everyone from the squares. The Kurdish women's struggle is based on a democratic and women's libertarian philosophy. Women waged a great struggle against the usurpation of their will. Women in Van resisted for days on the streets against the usurpation of will. Now a new process is beginning. We support the process led by Mr Abdullah Öcalan and promise that we will organise and bring peace.”

Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) İmralı Delegation member Pervin Buldan said: “This 8 March is different. It is marked by Mr Öcalan's call for women. The historic call he made on 27 February is also a call to women and young people. It is a call that all of us should embrace. It is a milestone for women. That is why we will hold on to this call and unite around it. We will unite and protect this process.”

Buldan continued: “Each one of us has lost our dearest, our loved ones, our children. We don't want our children, our loved ones to be buried in the ground. That is why no one should try to sabotage this process. No one should do wrong, think wrong or make a wrong decision. We have been waging a great struggle for years to pave the way for democratic politics. Everyone should act with sensitivity.  We all have expectations, and we all expect steps to be taken in line with these expectations, such as the urgent enactment of laws, the creation of a framework, the enactment of reforms and packages. This is very important for the realisation of the call for peace and a democratic society.”

Buldan stated that Öcalan sent special greetings to the people of Van and paid his respects to their will, which won all the 14 municipalities in Van and its districts in the local elections in March 2024.

Buldan spoke out against the appointment of trustees to municipalities, saying: “We want to believe that everything will get better. We once again say here that our co-mayors should be reinstated. The reinstatement of all our co-mayors who have been replaced by trustees will contribute to this process. The release of our imprisoned friends, Figen Yüksekdağ, Selahattin Demirtaş, Bekir Kaya and all other friends, will contribute to this process. The sensitivities and expectations of the Kurdish people must be taken into consideration. The Kurdish people demand recognition of their will and identity and education in mother tongue. Both sides should be careful about the sensitivity of this process. As Turks and Kurds, we need to protect this process so that it can lead to peace. We are in a process when neither a Turk nor a Kurd should lose his life anymore. We have to support this process hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder. We have to stand by Mr Öcalan and support the process. We have to evolve this process into a peace process. This is what we expect from the people of Van. No one should have any question marks, concerns or doubts. Everyone should know that Mr Öcalan will do no wrong.”

DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları criticized the judicial system in Turkey for working completely in favour of men: “It is the male-dominated judiciary that murders women, keeps men in prison for a few years and then releases them. Against this judiciary, both as the Kurdish women's movement and the women's movement in Turkey, we once again express our demand for a just judiciary. We want a judiciary that sees women free from male domination. We want a judiciary that does not encourage but sentences the murderers of women.”

Hatimoğulları highlighted the vital importance of the Istanbul Convention and called for its reinstation and continued: “We demanded that Law No. 6284, which protects women and children from violence in Turkey, be implemented in the most active way. As women, we will never give up our rights that we have gained through our struggle. Women say ‘we were, we are, we will be’. Thousands of greetings to the Sakines, Sêvês, Pakizes, Hevrin Xelefs who organised the Kurdish freedom movement, the Kurdish women's movement and turned it into an active pioneering subject.”

Tülay Hatimoğulları also condemned the usurpation of Van Metropolitan Municipality and said: “The people of Van are the honour and pride of Turkey and Kurdistan. You have achieved what no political party has achieved anywhere in Turkey. You have become a city that is an example to the whole world by winning all the 14 municipalities in the elections. The new trustee, like the previous ones, made his first intervention against the gains that women achieved with their labour.”

The DEM Party co-chair also condemned the massacres against Alawites in Syria and stated the following: “The Alawites in Syria are facing the biggest massacre in history. We stand in solidarity with all Alawite people living in Syria. Cross-border operations still continue in Syria. There are reports of bombardments on villages close to Kobanê in Rojava, operations against the Tishrin Dam and massacres against civilians. The infrastructure of a democratic Syrian Republic must be established as soon as possible. The Autonomous Administration formed there should be a model for the whole Middle East. At a time of escalating war and conflicts, Mr Abdullah Öcalan made a historic breakthrough. In his call for ‘Peace and Democratic Society’, Mr Öcalan has presented an important prescription against wars. He has given his message for a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey. From here, we say ‘Mr Öcalan, your call is welcome’. This call is a renaissance for women.  

In the Middle Ages, women were burnt as ‘witches’. Women who boiled herbs and healed the sick were burnt as sorcerers. But with the Renaissance, the way for women's struggle was paved and the women's movement grew. This is exactly what Mr Öcalan is expressing. We, too, embrace the struggle and call of Mr Öcalan, embracing science, knowledge, cultural developments and our own culture, as well as our bodies, our labour and our identity. One of the important messages of Mr Öcalan is that the Kurds and all the peoples and beliefs living in Turkey should ensure their self-organisation, and that all social dynamics, especially women, should claim all areas of freedom and organise. He highlighted the need for the Democratic Republic thesis to be embraced and organised by the society. As the DEM Party, Women's Assembly and women's movement, we will continue our struggle for the construction of a democratic republic today as we did in the past.”