Hikmet Tunç 

 

AĞRI - One of the Koçers of Sinek Plateau, Hazal Büyükaras says that she spends the whole day working and does not get paid for her efforts. HDP MP Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir, on the other hand, draws attention to the fact that the highland bans increase the workforce and says; “Women are most affected by the bans that cause deep poverty.”

 

The economic crisis, which has deepened with the pandemic, continues to affect the lives of citizens. The women most affected by the crisis also have problems at the point of production. On the other hand, citizens who go to the highlands in the summer do not get the reward of their hard work. One of them is women who spend three months of the year in Sinek Plateau of Ağrı.

 

‘My time is spent with work’

 

Hazal Büyükaras, who has spent the summer on the plateau for nearly 40 years, is 75 years old today. Hazal, who started to talk about a day in the plateau, says: “I wake up at 5:00 am in the morning. I send my sheep to the plateau. I clean the inside of the house, I wash the dishes, I cook. I milk the sheep twice a day. I boil the milk I get, strain it, turn it into cheese and then pack it. All my time is spent working. I make my living from animal breeding.”

 

‘We want to graze our sheep on fertile highlands’

 

Stating that fertile highlands are banned because they are located in the operation zone, Hazal said: “This year we had to stay in Sinek Plateau. We rented the plateau, which was owned by other villagers, for three months. We pay 120 TRY per sheep. We cannot even pay the rent of the plateau with the income we get from dairy products. Since our livelihood is on animal husbandry, we cannot do any other work. We want the plateaus to be free and to go to more fertile highlands.”

 

‘There is a serious poverty of women’

 

HDP MP Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir, who was among the delegation that visited the Sinek Plateau of Ağrı within the scope of the "No to Women's Poverty" meetings of the "Justice for Women" campaign of the HDP Women's Council, shared her impressions about the plateau.

 

Stating that they came together with women to draw attention to women's poverty in many regions of Turkey, Dirayet continues: "Yesterday we were in Ağrı, today we are in Iğdır, tomorrow we will be in Bitlis. As it is known, one of the poorest provinces of Kurdistan is Ağrı. There is serious poverty. Almost 75 percent of the population is struggling with hunger. In general, men work in construction jobs in metropolitan areas. The province of Ağrı makes a living from agriculture and animal breeding. But the highland bans of the government brought both agriculture and animal breeding to the point of ending. It causes deep poverty during this period. Of course, the most invisible is women poverty in here. Women live the most disadvantaged of this poverty. Women have to constantly deal with poverty. Because it is women who feel poverty at home in the first degree.”

 

‘Women’s participation in economic life’

 

Pointing to the low rate of women's participation in economic life in Ağrı, Dirayet points to the situation in women's unemployment as the reason. Dirayet said: “Young women are worked below the minimum wage until midnight. A life is almost lived in slavery conditions. But people have to go and work in those conditions despite their conditions.”

 

‘Women give the most important dimension of labor’

 

Noting that they came together with women in many villages, Dirayet said the following words: “We came together with Koçer women in Sinek Plateau. Both Koçer and the participation of Koçer women in production is a very traditional way of life and one of the important dynamics of Kurdish culture. However, we also observed there; in fact, women's labor is not paid and women's labor is in an invisible position. The women get up at 05.00, take the animals to the pasture and do the housework. She milks almost 100-150 sheep twice a day. Cheese, curd cheese, yoghurt and butter are made from the milk obtained. Therefore, by doing the same work twice a day, it takes twice as much effort. Therefore, this labor of women is not seen much. Because the labor they produce has no economic value. In this sector, which has become dairy farm, the labor of women is very cheap. It is marketed in a much smaller amount from dairy to grocery stores and shopping malls. Therefore, women, who are the main producers, do not benefit much from it. But women give the most important dimension of labor.”

 

‘Highland bans destroyed breeding’

 

Stating that the plateaus previously contributed to the livelihood of the Koçers due to their wetlands and vegetation, Dirayet explains the reason for this with the following words: “Because the animals were fed very well. But especially in the last five years, highlands have been banned under the name of security. Highland bans also destroyed breeding. Koçer women suffer the most from this. When the highlands are banned, Koçer women are forced to come to drier, more unproductive lands. They have to rent the highlands. The prices of these rented plateaus are also given in high amounts. Therefore, they only make money for this plateau with the price of the oil, cheese, product and milk they sell. Land conditions are not very suitable for this. They have a lot of problems this way. Due to the geographical conditions, women make a great effort in finding water, electricity, washing and cooking. They have very serious objections to this system, which forces the lives of Koçer women, and to the mindset of the state that built the prohibitionist system. These conditions need to change; animals, women, children can live more freely in the highlands.”

 

‘All responsibility is on women’s shoulders’

 

Stating that after meeting with Koçer women, they also met with women who are domestic workers in the villages, Dirayet said: “Women spend their lives in the home a little more as agriculture and animal breeding have come to an end. It is a situation with heavy responsibilities. Many responsibilities such as both children and housekeeping are on the shoulders of women. Women have neither the opportunity to participate in the public sphere nor the workplace. As HDP Women's Councilc, we both make this problem visible and we struggle with these problems. In this regard, women from Ağrı have very serious objections. The people can cope with these problems with serious economic solidarity against the policy of deprivation and impoverishment, which was developed very consciously in Ağrı.”

 

‘There is a government that does not listen the people’

 

Stating, “We have expressed the health, cultural, social and economic problems of Ağrı in the assembly,” Dirayet said that the assembly is unaware of the current country problems. Dirayet continued: “Government is not in a position to listen the people, care about the problems of the people, and produce policies in this way. Each time, the parliamentary questions we present are either not answered or are hidden, or there is an AKP government that denies the problem officially as ‘it didn't happen like this, it happened like this’. Because they and their followers look at the palaces from a place that divides the unearned income among themselves and does not believe that the people have problems. People are very aware of this.”