Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Serra Bucak met with women workers employed by the Department of Women and Family Services, saying: “With our own colours and our own identity as women, we are striving to exist in local government—and to truly turn this city into a city for women.”
Organised by the Metropolitan Municipality to review staff working conditions and demands, plan the steps to be taken towards solutions, and set out a roadmap for the period ahead, the municipality’s staff meetings are continuing. In this context, a meeting held in the Municipal Council Meeting Hall was attended by Co-Mayor Serra Bucak, alongside DBB Council members Emra Doğan and Hayat Özmez, Head of the Department of Women and Family Services Özden Gürbüz Sümer, and women workers.
Co-Mayor Bucak: We built it together
Speaking at the meeting, Co-Mayor Bucak said she had long wanted to meet specifically with staff from the Department of Women and Family Services, adding that the past 20 months had been a challenging process, but one pursued with hope. Bucak said: “We worked for things to be better—for them to be more beautiful. We built it together; we repaired our relationships and our ways of looking at things. Seeing our colleagues who had been dismissed back among us again was an important part of this process.”
“We are working to transform the city”
Drawing attention to the damage caused during the period of trustee administration, Co-Mayor Bucak stressed that this approach was disconnected from the public, from women, and from social policies. Bucak said: “With our own colours and our own identity as women, we are striving to exist in local government—and to truly turn this city into a city for women.”
“Our responsibility has increased several-fold”
Recalling that Diyarbakır is included in the United Nations Population Fund’s Women-Friendly Cities Project and is the only metropolitan municipality declared a “city for women”, Co-Mayor Bucak said this has increased responsibilities. She stated that work for the next three years should be planned from this perspective, and underlined the importance of a holistic approach—from spatial planning and women’s employment to education and tackling violence.
“We must create change and transformation”
Stressing that the main aim of the meeting was to listen to staff, Co-Mayor Bucak concluded as follows: “We want to listen to you—this is very much what today’s meeting is about. Every department has its own challenges. There are criticisms, proposals, things that should happen but somehow never do. Let’s speak about these sincerely today. We must create change and transformation. We have the strength for that, and let’s struggle together.”
Women set out their demands
Women workers who spoke during the meeting shared their views and proposals on implementing improvements shaped by women’s input, making derelict buildings safe, technical issues, women’s shelters, tackling substance dependency, and requests for courses.
