A workshop on "Labor in a Democratic Society" was held in Amed. Organized by the Platform of Democratic Institutions, the workshop was attended by representatives of political parties and civil society organizations. The opening speech on behalf of the platform was delivered by Duygu Özbay, Co-Chair of Branch No. 2 of the Education and Science Workers Union (Eğitim Sen) in Amed.

Duygu Özbay said that the peoples of the Middle East have historically carried not only a culture of conflict but also one of completion, mutual understanding, and coexistence, but added: "This culture was suppressed, obscured, and isolated by the interventions of power structures, nation-states, capitalist modernity, and monist ideologies. Peoples were severed from the fluid, inherent, and symbiotic bonds among them and were trapped in hierarchical and conflictual frameworks. All values belonging to societies were destroyed.”

In her speech, Duygu Özbay highlighted the following points: "A democratic and peaceful society is not only a systemic and social model of unity that, with its ideological and philosophical paradigm, allows all differences to live together freely on the basis of equal citizenship, free from domination and hierarchy; it also has the power to save peoples, with all their social values, from annihilation in the event the Third World War intensifies. The peoples have a demand for shared life. In the historical memory of the peoples of the Middle East, there is still a resilient ‘fluid space’ wisdom. This knowledge is a social consciousness that establishes a relationship not of conflict but of completion, not of denial but of recognition, not of supremacy but of equality. Therefore, solving the Kurdish issue does not only mean the liberation of the Kurdish people; it also becomes the key to democratization in Turkey, to restoring the historical friendship of the peoples of the Middle East, and to building a just future for humanity."

Sevtap Akdağ, Deputy Co-Chair of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), said: "We are going through a historic process in this geography. This reality has been acknowledged by the powers in the region. We see this promising process as the peoples’ achievement and the construction of democracy. It is our collective duty to realize the building of a democratic society. A democratic society cannot be built without peace. If part of society is oppressed, democracy does not materialize. We must talk about the construction of a democratic society."

Stating that the discussions to be held would shape the struggle’s course, Sevtap Akdağ said: "We must not be mere spectators of an equal and free life, but its builders."

After the speeches, the workshop continued behind closed doors to the press. The topics to be discussed included:

-Discussions on labor

-The role and transformation of labor in transitions to and experiences of lasting peace

-Women’s labor and poverty

-The impact of labor exploitation on disadvantaged groups (migrants, seasonal workers, child laborers, and people with disabilities).