Gülseren Onanç
Everything developed very quickly. When Russia’s president Vladimir Putin piled his tanks on the border with Ukraine, an international crisis emerged. The EU, French President Macron, Germany’s new chancellor Scholz tried to conduct diplomatic traffic, but a diplomatic solution could not be reached under the threats of an authoritarian Putin. The men sitting at both ends of the long white tables could not reach an agreement. While the American intelligence warned the West of the danger and challenged Russia, the wind of Cold War began to blow. Ukraine’s two separatist governments in the Donbas region declared their autonomy, and one morning, Russia suddenly began to invade Ukraine.
The unilateral occupation turned into a two-sided war with the resistance of Ukraine. We are now in a war with Western powers supporting Ukraine on one side and Russia supported by several countries on the other. Over one million Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, have left their country.The people of Ukraine are worried, afraid. We are facing a serious environmental destruction. UN Women, who has been in Ukraine since 2015, said that the internal conflicts in Ukraine have seriously affected women and girls and that millions of women, mostly women, will be affected in this war. The images of women leaving their loved ones, their homes and going to an unknown by trains and buses on the screens are breaking our hearts.
“War violates the rights of future generations”
An acclaimed author from Turkey, Karin Karakaşlı, wrote an article about the lands burned down, abandoned houses, and stolen futures through the war situation in Ukraine. As she says “There is no forgiveness for war, murder, massacre. “To take a life does not only mean what is there, but also the possibility of life in the future, the right of future generations.”
Can there be a solution with hard power ?
This picture of war we face in the twenty-first century is disappointing for humanity. Moreover, we cannot predict when and how the war will end. The parties are raising hands by continuing to harm each other. Apart from military and economic sanctions, diplomatic channels remain very weak. Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia did not yield any results. There is a race to punish and isolate Russia in the West. The West, which controls the global financial sector, imposes sanctions that will harm Russia’s economy. Western companies are leaving the country or imposing sanctions. The accounts of business people with Russian identity, especially oligarchs who support the Kremlin, are seized, football teams and athletes are excluded from competitions.
The method used by the West to end the war is the use of hard power, which is the use of military and economic power. But I’m afraid this won’t lead to peace. Putin may become more aggressive due to the miscalculations of the West and even increase his support in his own country. The Russian people may blame the West for all these things and experience emotional ruptures that are difficult to compensate. We experienced a vivid example of this just a month ago in the final of the 2022 Australian Open Tennis tournament. Recall the emotional speech that Russian tennis player Medvedev gave after losing to Spaniard Rafael Nadal. Medvedev said that the audience mistreated him because of his Russian nationality and would participate more in tournaments in Russia from now on.
When I read Medvedev’s statement, I was very upset. It should make us all think that this introverted child, who picked up a tennis racket the year the Berlin Wall came down, at the age of 12, dreams of playing tennis with players from different countries in various cities of the world and pursues it, abandons this dream at the age of 26 and clings to nationalism.
So why and how did we get here? In order to establish peace, we need to understand the underlying causes of war in all its dimensions.
From micro nationalism to macro nationalism
Academic Büşra Ersanlı analyzes the current situation by looking at Kazakhstan and Ukraine from Turkey. She states: “the evolution of the struggles of nation states in world history from micro-nationalism to macro-nationalism in the last 50 years, the transformation of globalism into nationalism has greatly stimulated the ambition of the leader of the Russian Federation. He launched an attack on its neighbours territory in order to activate its own global nationalism.
Demanding peace is perceived as being naive and delusional. On the other hand, those who demand an immediate end to this war and demand peace are punished in Russia, while in Western countries they are ostracized as naive and delusional.
Andy Beckett wrote in the Guardian: “People who want peace are being pushed out of British politics just when we need them most. Some of Britain’s peace activists are attacked and threatened.”
We need those who insist on peace
However, the world needs those who persistently demand peace; more than ever. There is much to be learned from women who have peacefully resisted oppressive, authoritarian militarist forces in different countries.
If there is no peace, there is no life, no prosperity, no equality, no freedom. We women are the living and the defenders who know this.
Despite all the prohibitions, we, as women from Turkey, were on the streets for our equality and freedom on March 8. We enlightened the streets once again with their glitters, slogans and resilience against darkness and oppression.
Feminist revolt will not end without establishing an equal and free world.
We will continue to demand an end to this war.