Thousands of women have taken to the streets in the main Kurdish city Amed/Diyarbakır today to mark the International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The march organized by Democratic Free Women's Movement (DÖKH) was joined by a large number of women and women's organizations.

"Jin Jiyan Azadi" [Women, Life, Freedom] read the banners they carried as they marched from Ofis to Bağlar district, chanting the slogan "We are not remaining silent but getting organized".

In a statement on behalf of the women joining the rally, Kardelen Women's Shelter Spokesperson Yeliz Ayyıldız called attention to the increasing violence against women in Turkey and remarked that the male-dominant capitalist system was responsible for systematic violence and the slavery life women are being doomed to.

Also putting emphasis on the increasing killing of women due to government policies, Ayyıldız said the Prime Minister's mindset and the ruling AKP government made women suffer from daily violence and killings by abusing the society's religious feelings and honesty and legitimating any kind of violence against women.

Ayyıldız called on all women in Turkey and Kurdistan and all movements against the system to join and strengthen the freedom struggle for a women-oriented democratic and free life.

Ayyıldız also remembered three Kurdish politicians, Sakine Cansız, a co-founder of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), Fidan Doğan, KNK (Kurdistan National Congress) Paris representative, and Leyla Şaylemez, member of the Kurdish youth movement, who were murdered in French capital Paris on 9 January 2013. Ayyıldız underlined that these executions were aimed at killing the Kurdish women.

Ayyıldız added that DÖKH also saluted the women's revolution in Rojava and all women jailed because of the freedom struggle they gave.