Women adamant about restoring peace in Turkey

In the polyphony of voices insisting on an immediate peace process in Turkey ahead of 'Peace Day,' women's voices can be heard everywhere more insistently and more adamantly, thanks to a number of robust initatives At one of the darkest times in its recent history, with war brewing at home and across the border, Turkey is due to celebrate "Peace Day" twice in September. An extra World Peace Day on Sept. 1 is planned to precede the United Nations' Sept. 21 International Day of Peace - after all, this is the land of irony. 

But although Turkey is time traveling back to the war-torn Turkish-Kurdish conflict of the 1990s in the southeast, cries for peace in the country have never sounded louder. Activists, journalists, academics, civil society groups - not to mention the dozens of grieving parents - are demanding peace at once in Turkey. The simple slogan "Bar?? Hemen ?imdi" (Peace Now) has never sounded more urgent.

In the polyphony of voices insisting on an immediate peace process, women's voices can be heard everywhere - more insistent and more adamant. Güne? Da?l?, Research Coordinator at the Ankara-based Democracy, Peace and Alternative Policies Research Center (DEMOS), wrote for the upcoming peace campaign of "Sivil Dü?ün" (Think Civil), the civil society program run by the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, to bring attention to the increasing polyphony of voices.

"Women have always proved to be the bravest during hard times, during times of war. Women's anti-war movements have always stood out," wrote Da?l?. "Not only have women have cried against the atrocities of war, but they have taken an anti-war stance and taken action on how to build peace through a feminist perspective. Women have taken the greatest...