The Kansas City area contingent of the international Advocates of Silenced Turkey will hold their first rally Saturday, March 6, from 3 to 4 pm, at Mill Creek Park (47th & Main) on the Plaza in Kansas City, Mo.
“We’re recognizing the thousands of women imprisoned or killed in Turkey for participating in the people’s revolution there in 2016 and since then,” says Eyyup Esen, Ph.D., representative of the local Dialogue Institute of Southwest and an organizer of the rally. “We hope 50-60 persons will join us in calling for freedom for the women and their children—victims of discrimination, violence, and persecution.”
The rally will feature local musicians from Turkey, several speakers, and huge banners and signs. The local Advocates of Silenced Turkey chose the rally site of Mill Creek Park, near the horse fountain on the Plaza, since it affords ample space for social distancing against COVID-19.
The rally March 6 comes just two days before International Women’s Day. The gathering aims to speak up for those silenced in Turkey during and since the 2016 uprising against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as for women the world around who suffer from rising rates of domestic abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The international Advocates of Silenced Turkey, in its news release for International Women’s Day, notes, “The current administration (in Turkey) uses arbitrary arrests and lengthy pretrial detentions to imprison courageous women who have opposed oppression. Today, the number of women arbitrarily incarcerated as political prisoners stands at more than 5,000, with a staggering increase in the number of new victims. Among those persecuted are more than 700 mothers who have been imprisoned with their infants and numerous others who have been violently separated from their children. … In 2020, 300 women were killed.”
PeaceWorks-KC leaders–grateful that the Dialog Institute of Southwest has supported PeaceWorks efforts for about five years–is happy to encourage others to attend the rally of Advocates of Silenced Turkey. For more information, contact Eyyup Esen, eesen@thedialoginstitute.org, 785-979-1307.
