Co-Mayor of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, Serra Bucak, visited local shopkeepers as part of the “Our Word is Not Over, We Will Stop Violence Together” campaign, stating that by joining hands and raising awareness in society, violence will be stopped.
The “Our Word is Not Over, We Will Stop Violence Together” campaign, launched by the Metropolitan Municipality and district municipalities to mark 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, will continue for one year.
As part of the campaign, Co-Mayor Serra Bucak, together with Berivan Gülşen Sincar, Co-Mayor of Kayapınar Municipality; Özden Gürbüz Sümer, Head of the Department of Women and Family Services; council members; and women’s unit staff from the municipalities, carried out visits to shopkeepers in Kayapınar district. Meeting with shopkeepers and residents in Diclekent neighbourhood, Bucak introduced the campaign and called for support for its activities.
Co-Mayor Bucak: We want to end violence
Co-Mayor Bucak stated that with 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, they had launched the one-year campaign “Our Word is Not Over, We Will Stop Violence Together”, and that through this campaign they aimed to put an end to violence in society.
Emphasising their desire to see an end to the killings of women and children, Bucak said:
“We want our local governments and our society to join hands in building this awareness. We want to carry on this struggle together. It is especially valuable for young people and students to take on duties and responsibilities in this matter and to develop this awareness with us.”
‘We will stop violence by raising awareness’
Emphasising the need to fight against violence, Co-Mayor Bucak said:
“We have a very strong claim: together we will stop violence in this city. By joining hands and creating awareness in society, we will put an end to violence. For women and men to live as equal individuals in society, for gender equality in education, in schools, in the family—in every sphere—violence is, of course, a very important issue. I wish we could talk about other things today instead of violence, but unfortunately the picture before us is not very bright. We live in a geography where more than 300 women have been killed in just ten months. We are talking about women torn from their lives, from their existence, and these women are almost always killed by those closest to them. They are cut off from their loved ones, from their struggles in life, from their dreams and aspirations. Therefore, this is undoubtedly a major problem for our society; it is a major problem for Türkiye. But every individual, every city, every local government, every municipality must start implementing anti-violence policies from within their own city.”
‘We are women, we are half of society, we are the ones who give life to society’
Explaining that the campaign will last for one year, Bucak stated that throughout the year they would continue to talk about violence and organise meetings. Bucak said:
“At gatherings like this, you may suddenly see us while you are sitting in cafés in your social lives. We know that it is possible to have these conversations together and that it is possible to build a world without violence together. This city is a city that defends democracy, a city that defends equality. Violence arises from what lies at the root of policies of inequality. We say: we are women, we are half of society, we are the ones who give life to society. Our word is not yet finished. We wanted to be the voice of women who do not want violence, women who do not want to be murdered, women who do not want to be torn from life in femicides. We wanted to say that our word is not finished. We wanted to be the voice of Narin, whose body was not found for 19 days; we wanted to be the voice of Rojin, murdered in Van, whose case has not even been brought before the judiciary. Sadly, we could extend this list. It is not a good list—these are the names of children torn from life, of children subjected to abuse.”
‘We live to build a system where women are not murdered’
Highlighting that women and men come into the world as equals, Bucak continued her speech, saying:
“So then, what are the obstacles to women and men living together equally and freely in this world? Why have policies of violence in our country increased so much, especially in recent years? When women are torn from life, sadly even their causes of death are not known—it is recorded simply as a suspicious death. What do we live for with dignity in this city? We live in this city to build a democratic and equal system in which women and men live under equal conditions, a system in which women are not murdered.”
‘We do not want to be alone in this campaign’
Emphasising that the struggle would not be limited to the campaign itself, Bucak concluded her speech by saying:
“I would most want men to perceive it this way, and most importantly, for men to internalise this in their own lives. They must internalise it in their conscience and in their minds. When men, in the environments they are in, can reflect their sensitive views, ideas and attitudes on this issue into other aspects of life, then true change and transformation begin. We say that a peaceful society is built in this way. We do not want to be alone in this campaign. We want all the people of Diyarbakır to say, under the light of this campaign: ‘Since women have launched such a campaign, we too are ready to do whatever we can for change and transformation in this society.’ We want this campaign to be heard, we want you to share this campaign, we want you to tell others about it. When you go home today, we want you to share this campaign. Because only by communicating with each other on the right basis, by knowing that we are a society and that we influence one another, can we strengthen this struggle even further. Together we can build a world without violence, a city without violence, a world where there is no violence against women, where women are not murdered by the men closest to them.”
