Turkey - EWL members concerned at arrest of feminist academic, Professor Bü?ra Ersanl?
[Istanbul, 02 November 2011] The national coordination of the EWL in Turkey is concerned with the recent arrest of Professor Bü?ra Ersanl?, an esteemed feminist academic with a pro-peace perspective who has been involved with the women’s movement, and calls for international awareness of the detrimental impact of authoritarian policies on gender equality in Turkey.
The Association for Training and Supporting Women Candidates (KA-DER) encourages women’s rights advocates in Turkey to stand against the intimidating policies of the government and calls on the women in Europe to show their solidarity.
Professor Ersanl?, a member of the Party Assembly of the Peace and Democracy Party (Bar?? ve Demokrasi Partisi, BDP) and a previous executive committee member of KA-DER, was arrested on 01 November 2011 within the scope of an operation called KCK (Union of Communities in Kurdistan).
KA-DER considers that the arrest of Professor Ersanl? as the most recent example of the authoritarian practices which have negative effects on democracy in Turkey and which are detrimental to the achievements of the women’s movement and hence to the long-aspired equality between women and men in the socio-political sphere.
