Dilan Babat 

 

ANKARA - HDP Women’s Council Spokesperson Ayşe Acar Başaran stated that they took important decisions as a result of the deficiencies they saw at the two-day local governments conference and said that they will carry out a more active process in the coming period in line with these decisions.

 

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) held a workshop on the role of women in local governments in Istanbul and Diyarbakır on September 18. While the subject was dicussed in the workshop held in Diyarbakır as ‘’What are the deficiencies in the co-presidency system?’’, in the workshop in Istanbul, topics such as ‘’better explaining the co-presidency system’’, ‘’The connection of women’s poverty with local governments’’, ‘’town planning from a women’s perspective’’ were discussed. The results of the workshop were discussed in detail at the ‘’Local Governments Women’s Conference’’ and ‘’Democratic Local Governments Conference’’ held in Ankara on September 25-26. The final declaration of the conference will be shared with the public in the coming days.

We talked to Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Women’s Council Spokesperson Ayşe Acar Başaran about the local governments conference and what roadmap they will put in front of them in the next process. 

 

‘What kind of local government do we want?’

 

Ayşe reminded that the Kurdish political movement held such conferences from time to time, and most recently held by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Stating that HDP held the Local Governments Conference for the first time, Ayşe said: ‘’We held meetings in many cities for the preliminary preparation of this. We held workshops on the women’s front in Diyarbakır and Istanbul. In these workshops, we discussed the question of ‘What kind of local governments do we envisage?’. Because when you look at Turkey’s statistical table and profile, local governments are the mechanisms in which the power is most intense. In general, it is very difficult for women to find a place for themselves and to have a voice and power in the administration. We are talking about a statistics that is expressed in thousands for Turkey. Even though there are changes in the women’s quotas led by the Kurdish movement, the Kurdish women’s movement, the determination of women mayors in some municipalities, the inclusion of woman friends from the women’s council in the elections in certain places, and some changes in these statistics, there is not much difference in the general table.

 

‘Democratic local governments can be formed’

 

Pointing out that local governments have been turned into rent centers, Ayşe said that when the municipality is mentioned, the field of ‘’unearned income and power’’ comes to mind. Mechanisms that will meet the needs of women, society and citizens living there are not mechanisms settled in people’s minds. As we see women as one of the most basic pillars or a must of democracy, as a result of discussions on how local governments can be democratized, we have seen that democratic local governments can actually be formed with the presence of women.”

 

‘Mechanism aiming to transform the system’

 

Emphasizing that, from local governments to the co-presidency system, it reveals that it is possible to meet the needs of the society if the mechanisms that allow women to be empowered, not just their existence, are occured, and said: ‘’We see that local governments are approached with a perspective that sees the needs of men. Because of this, we have put forward a mechanism that starts with three council members in our local governments and continues with equal representation together with the co-presidency. In certain parts of the world, the co-presidency system is implemented, but in local governments, the co-presidency system is considered to be ‘unique’. It is actually a system that we have implemented for the first time, and it is a mechanism that aims to transform the system within the system.’’

 

‘We entered the houses with the co-presidency system’

 

Noting that there are many difficulties in realizing equal representation in local governments, Ayşe continued: ‘’You are making a claim of transformation in it. In these workshops, ‘What is the co-presidency system?’, ‘What do we foresee?’, ‘Only two people share a seat?’, ‘Two people move from one to power?’, ‘Or do we claim to make decisions with a collective mind, to rule with a collective mind?’, ‘Are local governments from a community inclusive perspective?’ We discussed these. We have seen that we can go one step beyond the mechanisms in which men have a say behind closed doors, where the doors are opened to women, society, citizens there. With the co-presidency system, we have created a mechanism where municipalities enter the houses. Usually when people went to the municipality, there was get no answer. From a system that requires many intermediaries to reach the mayors, we have turned it into mechanisms where the municipality enters the houses and where the municipalities and local governments take joint collective decisions with women. We wanted to reflect that women can also take their words there by taking part in these mechanisms. We approached municipalism with a women libertarian perspective.’’

 

‘A city at peace with ecology’

 

Expressing that they want to make local governments an institution that meets the needs of the citizens, Ayşe stated that the current municipalities are approaching with a perspective that ignores the needs of the society. Ayşe said: ‘’When we look at it, huge buildings have been made from the point of view of male-dominated power, but there is a form of municipality and zoning that does not leave anything from the ecosystem and ignores ecological life. But the woman actually brought with her the building of a city in harmony with nature, ecosystem and ecology. Local governments can actually create employment areas in many areas, but employment is always built on self-enrichment. With the perspective of our co-presidency, equal representation, that is, women’s libertarian municipality, employment areas have been opened to women. It created areas that may seem like small cooperatives, but where women can feel safe and prove their existence. Women’s municipality is actually the sum of these. Co-presidency and equal representation; We can say that it is actually a systematized form of government in a democratic, ecological, women’s libertarian perspective that sees the needs of the people.’’

 

‘We will implement our decisions’

 

Noting that many people do not understand the co-presidency system in local governments and that they have seen its deficiencies with the conference they organized, Ayşe added that they are conducting the discussion on ‘’How can we strengthen the co-presidency system in local governments?’’ Ayşe said: ‘’We evaluated the data from all workshops and meetings in the two-day conference. How can we find solutions? Many of our municipalities may be usurped by trustees. But since this model is actually an alternative to the monist view of power and the monist understanding of power, it was wanted to be eliminated a little bit. But we have never seen local government and municipal work as consisting of municipal buildings. How can we fight this to make it more understandable in the coming period? How can we eliminate the deficiencies that exist in the coming period, and prevent the male-dominated point of view from being so alive on all sides, despite this system itself, and transform it? How can we involve the society in this process for a more democratic method? We have taken important decisions regarding these questions that we have set before us. In the coming days, we will be in a struggle for implement these decisions. We will announce both our final declaration and our decisions to the public. We believe that this will be more visible not only with words but also with actions. We will carry out a more active process.’’