The former mayor of Amed Gültan Kışanak has been selected as Ankara Metropolitan Municipality co-mayor candidate of the People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), who is in Kandıra F Type High Security Prison, sent a letter to female journalists through her lawyers.

Kışanak underlined that they will fight to expand the women's struggle for freedom, women's solidarity and women's organizations.

The letter is as follows:

"Dear members of the press, my dear colleagues, I congratulate and salute you for protecting the honor of the profession at a time when freedom of the press is under heavy pressure. I salute the journalists held in prisons, and wish them to regain their freedom and their pens as soon as possible. I always say that I started journalism with very idealistic feelings. Unfortunately, I have also witnessed idealist journalists who were drawn into the dominant relations of our profession and paid any price to protect the honor of their pen when it was contaminated. I have experienced and are still experiencing the problems that female journalists face, just like in every field, and maybe even more. While the female journalists of my generation and the female journalists I watch with admiration today struggle to protect the honor of our profession and convey the truth to the people, they also had to fight against the masculine mentality, masculine language and sexist judgments in the media order.

Life has taught me that if we, as women, seek a free and equal future, we must be present in all areas of life, but especially in the field of the press and politics. I struggled to participate and contribute to the women's freedom struggle both in the tradition of a free press and in democratic politics. I learned through experience how important and critical both of them are. Today, I accepted the Ankara candidacy proposal made to me by the DEM Party and our women's council with the awareness of responsibility arising from this life experience. I will try to meet the expectations of our people, especially women, as much as I can and within my means. Believing in women's freedom, social peace and democratic principles, I know that if there are no free journalists struggling to expose lies and bring the truth to the public, this struggle cannot be successful. Social struggles are surrounded by censorship and black propaganda media. There are many types of censorship here. The easiest way is to ignore it. It's not too difficult to deal with this. But black propaganda and perception operations have devastated people's minds.

We will fight together to break prejudices, tell the truth, and build bridges of social peace everywhere. We will fight to expand women's struggle for freedom, women's solidarity and women's organizations. I thank you in advance for your hard work, effort and friendship and wish you success. I would like to point out that we will always need your questions, criticisms and suggestions. Good luck, with love and respect."