Abstract
According to official numbers, more than 50 000 people died in the conflict opposing since the 1980s the guerrilla organization PKK and the Turkish state. Concentrated mostly to the south-eastern region of Turkey, this decades-long conflict politicised populations, including women.
Thus, the PKK witnessed an extraordinary female participation in its structures and has been notably transformed by women fighters' efforts and achievements. The changing status of female guerrillas as well as the incorporation of women's representation into the official ideology of the Kurdish movement had major impact on women's political participation.
The armed struggle facilitated growing female political representation within the leftist Kurdish political parties which flourished during the years 2000 when the military rule over the region was finally lifted. The paper discusses women's political participation within Kurdish parties in Turkey by examining three key apprehensions that pertain to women and war theme.
Firstly, women are often seen as "passive victims" of war. The Kurdish case shows that the impact of war on women is not one-sided or homogeneous and that the conflict contributed to the politicisation of women.
Secondly, based on the experiences from other Middle Eastern countries, it has become notorious to see women's demands postponed "after the conflict was over" and forgotten when that moment came. In a striking opposition to this tendency, the growing women's representation has been embedded into the ideology of the pro- Kurdish parties.
In fact, organized women became the main driving force of the parties' ideological advancement in recent years. 40% quota was put in place as well as the co-chairing system. Last but not least, the studies predict that with increased state repression, the demobilisation will grow.
This thesis has somehow mixed balance-sheet. Instances of increased participation were witnessed in the Western areas of the country in favour of the Kurdish political party.
On the other hand, with the renewed intensity of armed conflict in 2015 and 2016, the Turkish army destroyed several cities in the south-eastern region; almost all mayors of the pro-Kurdish party have been removed from their offices and arrested. Massive arrests, closing down of associations, women's centres and media outlets had a concrete tangible impact on female political representation - it decreased accordingly.
This points out to the need to further contextualize the "demobilisation" in light of the narrowing political space for any kind of opposition in Turkey.