Mothers cry out: We are women, we are mothers, we stand for peace!

More than 50 thousand people lost their lives during the unjust war waged by Turkish state against Kurdish people. The victims were all children of poor Turkish and Kurdish people. For decades women has been shedding tears and wailing for the loss of their husbands and children. Those women whose husbands and children are in the areas of armed conflict are always in fear of getting any bad news while they are waiting for their return.

The Turkish state has been trying to force the weeping mothers to say “long live the patria! But it failed to hide the mothers’ cry “we wish our children lived long rather than the patria. Kurdish women have been calling out for a solution to Kurdish question and they have been struggling to stop the war. Kurdish women who took to the streets on the occasion of International Working Women’s Day (8 March) expressed their aspirations by chanting “we are women, we are mothers, we stand for peace and called for all women in Turkey to uphold the process of peace. They also express their hope for their children turning back from mountains safe and sound. Kurdish mothers who lost their sons and daughters said: “do not let other mothers cry anymore. We want peace! In recent years Turkish mothers who lost their sons in the war also say “stop the bloodletting, do not let other mothers cry anymore!

For many years Turkish state has persistently turned a deaf ear to mounting demands for peace. It has not met rightful and legitimate demands of Kurdish people, even the most basic ones. It has tried its best to prevent Kurds from achieving their freedom, to strangle their most rightful demands by escalating the war and violence. Governments ignored women’s demands for peace and caused great sufferings also leading to tens of thousands of poor young people to lose their lives. And despite all these sufferings governments are still vacillating to stop this unjust war and bring peace.

But all these policies have gone bankrupt. Despite all provocations and instigation to set Turkish and Kurdish people against each other it has proved futile to make them enemies. They kept sharing the daily life. They remained good neighbours. Intermarriages have never stopped and they shared each other’s sorrow and happiness. They kept enjoying common tables. So they avoided doing any harm to each other. They all lead a similar life in the same poor neighbourhoods, they are poor Kurdish and Turkish people working in same factories for miserable wages and their children go to the same ramshackle schools. With their poverty and sufferings they are in fraternity! Mothers in particular are in fraternity!

There can be no match for the sense of motherhood. Is it fair to condemn mothers, who grow their children with love and self-devotion and spare them any threats, to the grief of losing their children? Turkish mothers, mothers of soldiers; your beloved sons have been sent to death in most beautiful days of their lives. They died before enjoying the pleasures of life. Mothers, did we give birth to our children and raise them to witness their death? So we should stand against war and fight for peace!

You women whose lives are moulded with sufferings and ordeal of Turkish and Kurdish people! You women who have lost husbands and sons or are watching for their return in fear! We women want peace more than anyone else! There is no problem between Kurdish and Turkish people that they cannot resolve. Women have no objections for the equality and fraternity of Kurdish and Turkish people. We do not believe any nation is superior or privileged over others. There will be no problem between equal peoples. If we keep silent the hearts of mothers will continue to burn with grief of losing their children. Women who can give birth to their children can also give birth to peace as long as we call out: Stop the unjust war! Give Kurdish people their democratic demands!