The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları evaluated the developments on the agenda at the weekly party group meeting in the Parliament on Tuesday.

Tülay Hatimoğulları said that 34 women were murdered in Turkey in September and 261 women were murdered in 8 months of 2024. ‘Where do men get this courage?’ she asked and continued: “Men get this courage from the judiciary that does not work. They get this courage from the fact that every case is somehow concluded with impunity by finding extenuating circumstances. They get this courage from the government that marginalises women every time they speak, that renounces the Istanbul Convention and the male state that discusses the cancellation of Law No. 6284.”

Tülay Hatimoğulları stated that the government and the press, which sides with the government, treat these massacres as ordinary and said, “They normalise them in the eyes of the society. Enough is enough. We cannot tolerate the murder of one more woman. Preventive policies against male violence must be implemented immediately. The judiciary must stop being a male judiciary. The system of impunity must be abandoned.”

Tülay Hatimoğulları spoke about the meetings they held within the scope of the ‘Bread and Justice Campaign’ the party launched and said, “We travelled step by step to all four corners of Turkey and Kurdistan with our Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan, our MYK (Central Executive Board) and PM (Party Assembly) members, our provincial and district organisations. There was no place left we did not visit.  We met with many sectors of society. We met with workers, labourers, the poor, farmers, small shopkeepers, domestic labourers, women and all victims of injustice. We witnessed the protests of tomato and pistachio tea producers. We witnessed the rebellion of female domestic labourers. Citizens are hungry and poor. This is the summary of our work that has been going on for months.”

Drawing attention to the economic crisis, Tülay Hatimoğulları said: “Tomatoes and peppers are left in the garden. The producers do not even feel the need to collect them because they do not save the cost. Ankara and Istanbul residents cannot eat tomatoes below 40-50 liras. In other words, both the producer and the consumer are victims. Price hikes do not stop. The current purchasing power of the minimum wage of 17 thousand TL has fallen to 12,514 TL. Due to the policies implemented by the AKP government and this exploitative system, both those who produce and those who consume are hungry. There is no justice in income, tax and wages. There is no justice in the judiciary. There is no justice in freedoms. This government has no licence to govern. This government must go as soon as possible. Workers, labourers, pensioners... Stop seeing them as the hunchback of the state.”

Speaking about the wars ongoing in the region, Hatimoğulları continued: “Unfortunately, bombs are exploding in Palestine and Lebanon. 100 years ago, maps were drawn at the table. Approximately 40 thousand people have lost their lives in Israel's attacks on Gaza, which has left one year behind yesterday. This is the announced number. We are sure that there are many more than that. I honour the people who lost their lives in Palestine and Lebanon. Civilians were massacred, there is an incredible level of oppression against the society. An imperialist design is being imposed on the peoples of the Middle East. They want to redraw the map.

Palestine was burnt and destroyed. Russia-Ukraine war continues. The China-Taiwan war is on the agenda. Now there are Israeli attacks on Beirut, Syria, and even extending to Iraq and Iran. This is a new war of division in the multipolar world. It is the regional wars of the imperialist powers that have set out to create a brand new world order. The world is meant to be reshaped over the hydrocarbon gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean and energy transmission lines. That is why these wars are being waged. They are the harbingers of much greater destruction, a very heavy destruction, a great extinction that will mean the disappearance of the earth. That is why, during our meetings with the Council of Europe this week, we conveyed the following views to the representatives of the governments there and to the representatives of the European Parliament. Let the whole Turkish public know. It is now necessary for everyone to assume responsibility in the matter of peace, because in the face of nuclear attacks, no one, no nature will have a chance to live. Let us organise a universal peace movement without borders. This is the need of the current period. This is our primary duty depending on the developments.

Within this picture, we have to evaluate Turkey's situation together. The AKP-MHP government has followed an expansionist and Ottomanist line in its foreign and Middle East policy until today. It has built it on Kurdish enmity. Erdoğan says, ‘Israel's eyes are on Anatolia’. We have to underline these facts. If Erdoğan thinks that he is making progress with his ‘one minute’ break-out or his anti-Israel speeches at the UN Security Council, he is mistaken. These speeches are just heroism, they have no practical equivalents.

We say that the peoples in Turkey have a dream of a common life and hope for a common life. As the DEM Party, we will continue to work for the solidarity, peace, equal and brotherly life of the peoples in Turkey as we have done so far. But I have to say this. Although they have such intentions, the first three of the five articles in the final declaration of the MGK (National Security Council) decisions on 3 October were written on how to kill Kurds more, how to beat Kurds more. We would like to remind the public and themselves of this; is this how the strategy for internal peace and internal peace will be formed?

The Kurdish question in Turkey must be solved through peaceful and democratic methods. Not only in Turkey, but also in Syria, the Kurdish people's right to status must be approached with a line of solidarity. This should also be presented as the official view of Turkey. No one should forget that this is the way to ensure peace in the region. In order to raise these demands, we wholeheartedly advocate that the isolation of Mr Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı must be broken.

For this reason, on 13 October, we will rally with 10 thousand people in Amed (Diyarbakır), saying ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a solution to the Kurdish question’. We want to carry the voice of peace from Amed to Ankara and Istanbul, from Amed to Beirut and Palestine, from Amed to Ukraine and Taiwan.

On behalf of our party, we ask both the government and the opposition; where are the AKP and its partners in this picture? Where is the main opposition party in this picture? What kind of programme does it have for a solution to these problems? We expect them to explain this to the public.

Do you know where the DEM Party is in this picture? Today, as it was yesterday, it is exactly in the frame of honourable peace. We want an honourable peace. Whatever struggle and cost it may require to establish an honourable peace, we are ready to undertake it. We are also ready for negotiation and dialogue when required. But, in essence, not in words. It is not enough to stand in front of the camera and say two words, but to announce a plan and programme for a solution to the public, to come out with such a programme, and only with such a concreteness can politics be discussed.”