SES Equality and Solidarity Association organized a meeting titled “What Role Will Women Play in Turkey’s Democracy Building?”with the wide participation of representatives of the women’s movement in Turkey.
The strategies and roadmap of the women’s movement for the upcoming elections were discussed at the meeting to rethink the possible roles women can play in Turkey’s democracy building.
The event held at The Marmara Pera in Istanbul were organized in 5 separate sessions: “Needs and objectives”, “Women’s participation in politics, What has been done? What could not be done? What should be done?”, “Political climate in Turkey, threats and opportunities”, “Women’s movement in Turkey: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats” and “2023 roadmap strategies and priorities”
The president of SES Equality and Solidarity Association Gülseren Onanç, Prof. Dr. Serpil Sancar, Prof. Dr. Ayşe Ayata, Prof. Dr. Feride Acar, Prof. Dr. Fatmagül Berktay, Assoc. Dr. Sevgi Uçan Çubukçu (on behalf of EŞİK and EŞİTİZ) lawyer Canan Arın (on behalf of the Women’s Coalition), independent feminist Prof. Dr. Hülya Uğur Tanrıöver, the president of KAGİDER Emine Erdem, the president of “Ben Seçerim” Nilden Bayazıt Postalcı, Assoc. Dr.Özlem Kaygusuz, political communication consultant Gülfem Saydan Sanver, journalist Meral Tamer, the general director of Istanbul Political Research Institute (IstanPol) Seren Selvin Korkmaz, political consultant Hilal Dokuzcan, the president of Marginal Porter Novelli Agency Asuman Bayrak, communications expert Necla Zarakol, writer Ayşen Şahin, and academics Ayşe Yorgancıoğlu were present at the meeting.
Gülseren Onanç began her opening speech by describing the “zeitgeist” and said, “We are facing a world in which right-wing politics is on the rise, polarization is increasing, militarism is accelerating, our neighbors are at war, and we are worried about returning to a bipolar world.”
“The world we dream of, the world which possesses gender equality, is in rapid regression,” said Onanç, adding that, “Turkey has become an introverted country, isolated. With the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, this has already been declared to Europe and the world.”
Reminding the upcoming elections expected in 2023, she finished her speech with these open questions: “Can the women’s movement create a pressure group in Turkish politics? How can this happen? Is there another way? How can we plan for the future with our learned experiences?”
‘Women’s movement has been depoliticised’
After Onanç, Prof. Dr. Serpil Sancar said that the women’s movement gained serious ground as a civil power, but it was not active in political issues and did not sit at the table with political actors, and underlined the fact that women’s movement in Turkey should make a self-criticism with regards to its communications strategy with the political society.
‘We are facing the danger of theocratic totalitarianism’
Prof Dr. Fatmagül Berktay on the other hand, said that we are facing “the danger of theocratic totalitarianism”, and reiterated the fact that women’s movement in Turkey could not sit at the table with political actors because men were missed as target group.
“We focused on women’s solidarity, on women’s issues, but we could not become political actors because we did not think about politics. Civil society in Turkey is project based. Being successful in the international arena has depoliticized us and condemned us to identity politics. We could not unite properly around political goals.”
‘The role of civil society will be to strengthen dialogue mechanisms and participation’
Emphasizing that there is an opportunity for civil society to be more active in politics for the election period Seren Selvin Korkmaz said, “The role of civil society will be to strengthen dialogue mechanisms and participation. The coalition of opposition parties will not be enough to win the election. They need to maintain participatory and effective campaigns. They will have a hard time talking to each other. They will need the participation of non-partisan civil society. Women need to take advantage of this need and integrate their policy proposals.”
Prof. Dr. Feride Acar also said that the women’s movement should be taken more seriously at this point: “What should the women’s movement do in order to show its potential and become a political actor? It is time to have a dialogue with men, to integrate men into our feminist discourse, and to develop a discourse together. Otherwise, we’ll just keep playing and singing for ourselves.”
Political communication consultant Gülfem Saydan Sanver stated that the women’s movement should put pressure on political parties and said that it is important to make good communication in the public space for the coalition efforts to be led by the women’s movement.
Roadmap for 2023 elections and after
At the end of the meeting, the participants listed different strategies and suggestions on how women should play a role in Turkey’s democracy building:
1) An inclusive civil platform that will work on political participation with a loose organization model should be established.
2) Women’s rights organizations should work on transforming and standardizing the women’s branches of the political parties and integrating women’s rights policies in party politics.
3) Studies should be carried out to organize locally. Female mukhtars, city council members and provincial council members should be supported and a dialogue should be established with them.
4) Strategic relations and partnerships should be established with male and female politicians in the parliament and women’s organizations in the parties.
5) The coalitions of six opposition parties, which did not mention the Istanbul Convention in the text of the memorandum due to differences of opinion, should be requested to propose concrete policies on how to implement the Convention.
6) A political argument should be put forward through the younger generation voters who have high awareness on gender equality.
7) Actions that will reveal the political power of the women’s movement should be developed.
8) Women voters should be told that their rights are at risk and also how female parliamentary candidates will make a difference if they are elected, so that a female voter base that can demonstrate her political power should be created.
9) The women’s movement should nominate candidates from within.
10) A campaign should be started with the discourse that civil society is in danger, based on the lawsuit filed against the We Will Stop Femicide Platform.