Artist Book, 2020: Statement
In his March 2019 speech addressing the citizens of Diyarbakir (a crucial city for the Kurdish minority), Erdogan parts the Kurdish peoples from the Kurdish Terrorist organisation (PKK), quoting: “All Diyarbakır needs is to lift the shadow of the terrorist organization from the city”., demanding theremoval of the organisation in that area, in order to protect the citizens of Diyarbakir. However, several political actions and military-based decisions point out that Erdogan does the exactopposite, continuing the war on Kurds - as seen in another speech several months later:“Turkish president has said his country would “crush the heads” of Kurdish militants if they didnot withdraw from a planned “safe zone” in northern Syria in time.” 1Furthermore, the words "Kurds", "Kurdistan", and "Kurdish" were officially banned by the Turkishgovernment. Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life. Many people who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested andimprisoned.
Kurdish women struggle for their rights, as well as for the national base in which they exist altogether. In this respect, they put special emphasis on the values of women and women’s bodies that will bring thenational base into existence, as seen with the Kurdish activist, feminist and artist Zehra Doğan.Doğan indicates that women are not doomed to a single way of emancipation, but rather dependingon different social, economic, and cultural contexts, have alternative ways of emancipation and self-realization. An interesting and crucial aspect to highlight in regards to the rights of Kurdish women, defending the Kurdish orthography as a means of perpetuation of national existence renders the woman’s body as one step closer to autonomy- with the aim to prevent it from entering into asphere of influence of any kind of power. The significant role of body politics in the Kurdish feminists’struggle is equal to the role of body politics in between the Republic of Turkey and the Kurdish peoplesaltogether and signifies the Turkish- Kurdish Conflict. It could be stated that Kurdish women have certain empathy with other women who are victimized by the political system, as do several countries opposing the suppressing regime of Erdogan against minorities of many kinds (hereby pointing out the Armenian conflict alongside withthe ongoing Kurdish-Turkish War). After all, the world condemns the war on kurds, while Turkey under Erdogan applauds.