The Women's Council of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP) met for the first time in Ankara to discuss current political developments and the demands of the coming period. The Co-Chair of HEDEP, Tülay Hatimoğulları, gave an introductory statement in which she commented on the attacks on Palestine and Rojava, among other things, and criticised the hypocrisy of the Erdogan government.

Tülay Hatimoğulları said that two million people are struggling to survive in a confined space due to the Israeli attack in Gaza: "It is not possible to accept the attacks on Gaza. Women's souls and bodies are being shattered in this war. We have already seen how women's bodies have been exposed in this war and what kind of policies are being pursued. The systematic rape of women's bodies has been used as a method in wars throughout history."

At the same time as the attacks on the Gaza Strip, the north and east of Syria were also bombed, said Tülay Hatimoğulları and continued: "In Rojava, power plants, hospitals, petrol stations, schools and residential areas were bombed. Five million people were targeted by these attacks. Israel wants to expel the Palestinians living in Gaza into the desert, even though Egypt does not accept this. While the government of Turkey opposes this, it has done the same in Afrin. The 2018 invasion displaced the Kurdish population and worked on a major demographic change in Afrin. Now this project is meant to be extended to all of Rojava. We cannot accept this. In the Middle East, there are two fundamental wounds that are a seething problem: one is the Kurdish question and the other is the Palestinian question. Until these two problems are resolved on a democratic basis outside the nation-state understanding through a confederal administration, the region will not be at peace."

The HEDEP Co-Chair continued: “Israel must urgently stop the attacks on Palestine, equally the Erdogan region must stop the attacks on Rojava. All armed elements of Turkey must immediately withdraw from Syria. The key to solving the Kurdish question through peaceful and democratic methods must be found, especially in Turkey, and we must build a process in which the Kurdish people can live peacefully, equally and fraternally in the four parts of Kurdistan and this is constitutionally guaranteed. Let us all stand together with the Kurdish people and the Palestinian people more than ever."

In order to end the war, HEDEP appeals to women all over the world, especially in the Middle East, Tülay Hatimoğulları said: "We can create a peace action together by crossing borders and joining hands in an internationalist sense. The whole world, especially the Middle East, desperately needs this. We women can stop the bloodshed with our solidarity and struggle."

Hatimoğulları also commented on the aggravated isolation regime imposed on Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan who has been held in a solitary cell on İmralı Prison Island since 15 February 1999, and subjected to total incommunicado imprisonment over the past three years, denied meetings with his lawyers and family members.

Hatimoğulları highlighted the importance of Öcalan and his freedom for the resolution of the Kurdish question and other problems experienced by the people of the region. “Women in Turkey and Kurdish women should join hands and pave the way for peace,” she said.