FRIENDSHIP , LOVE, ACTIVISM
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Şirin Tekeli
I became an activist after I resigned from the university in 1981. (In 1967 when I visited Athens ,I discovered that the time we chose was wrong. Athens was suffering under the boots of the military junta. In 1980, it was our turn to suffer under a military junta… ) At that time European women were curious to learn about what we were doing as feminist women. I was invited here and there to give conferences in the second part of 1980’s.
Among these meetings, those organised by KEGME, which was a woman’s organisation rather close politically to PASOK,
had a particular place. Once we got together in the island of Spestes, and once we met in a hotel at the Greek part of Lefkoşa in Cyprus. I met Margarita Papandreou and Eleni Stamiris during these meetings. I felt no hostility towards me in these meetings, on the contrary there was the sentiment of solidarity, as we, the women living at two different sides of the Aegean were suffering from the same oppressions, like poverty, violence, non representation in the politics etc. I published reports of these meetings as well as articles by Greek women scholars in Toplum ve Bilim, a journal where I had a role in the board of editors.
For me, people living in two sides of the Aegean had lived long enough, for many centuries in peace, and shared a common
culture in spite of the difference of religion. They understood each other deeply.
In 1996 we were active to create a new organisation in Turkey : The Association for the Support and Training of Women Candidates KA.DER in order to defend equal representation of women and men in all fields of life. Both Zeynep and myself were among the founding members… The crisis of Kardak / İmnia broke up. Zeynep received a letter from Margarita and we launched the initiative of WINPEACE. For one of the preliminary meetings, Ceylan, Nilüfer Kuyaş and myself went to Athens or rather to Kastria where Margarita had her house. We met all those enthusiastic women surrounding
her. There was no sign of hostility but friendship and love; peace loving was the only motivation that moved us all. A suitable strategy was adopted and we started to work. Our first public meeting in Kos and Bodrum was
unforgettable…
Later on I was so much involved in the activities of KA-DER that, I could not spare time for WINPEACE. But it was one of the activism that I appreciated most, hence she remained always in my heart and brain. In spite of my absenteeism, friends were kind enough to invite me to the 10. Anniversary meeting, held again in Bodrum and Kos. And Zeynep kindly offered me to write few lines for this book.
The legend says that Cyprus was the island where Aphrodite was born. And the island lived many centuries as a multi-cultural peace island. I hope that in near future she will become again an island of peace and love and, that myself will be able to see this happen in my lifetime.