‘Not preventing feminicides is government's political preference’

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Women's Assembly Spokesperson Ayşe Acar Başaran held a press conference in Diyarbakır today (December 31).

Addressing a series of issues in her speech on the last day of the year, HDP Batman MP Acar Başaran said, "In 2020, we, all together, witnessed how the government failed to govern the country. The picture that we had throughout 2020 was a reflection of the government's 18-year failure to govern the country or its preferences of governing on the people."

Başaran continued her remarks briefly as follows:

"It was, again, a picture of how society, people, laborers and poor people were made to pay the price for the problems brought about by the crisis of capitalism, by the problems caused by capitalism in the world.

"2020 was a year which showed that the 18-year policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) were misogynist and it showed how not a single step had been taken for women's good for 18 years and how the gains of women had been attacked recklessly.

Trustees, detentions, arrests

"It was, again, a year when the trustee policies were in full motion and it was understood that trustee policies were misogynist policies.

"With trustee policies, women's organizations were closed, men were appointed to the units developing policies for women and the trustee policy found its place as a misogynist politics in 2020 as well.

"Women's organizations were attacked; they frequently attacked the TJA and Rosa Women's Association, detained and arrested women.

"Most recently, towards the end of the year, our friend Leyla Güven, who has been struggling for women's freedom and Kurdish people's future for years, served time in prison and laid her body to hunger, risking death, has been taken hostage by being sentenced to 22 years, 6 months in prison.

'Feminicides are legitimized'

"And, one December 29, four women lost their lives in a day. These four women are Selda Taş, Aylin Sözer, Vesile Dönmez and Betül Tuğluk.

"Even before the women are laid to rest, the massacred women are turned into targets in the press. The massacred women are presented as guilty. Even after they die, women are forced to prove that they did not deserve to die. It is debated whether they deserved it or not.

"The last example of it is Aylin Sözer. They made a fake propaganda in the press, alleging that the murderer was her ex-boyfriend. Because if it had been the ex-boyfriend, the government would call it a 'crime of passion.'

"Because, in this society, there is an attempt to legitimize feminicides with these definitions. One branch of it is the media. No matter which newspaper you read, you see a similar picture when it comes to feminicides.

"The government is making a preference. It is not because it cannot prevent it; it can do it. The government does not prevent these feminicides, harassments, rapes as a political preference. But we also have our own preferences. We have the chance to make a preference. This life is not fate. We, women, can build what is natural and what needs to be." (DŞ/SD)