Esra Çuhadar: Women’s participation and resistance in Türkiye’s renewed peace process
Esra Çuhadar, a mediator with the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network, associate professor at Bilkent University and Head of Research at Ottawa Dialogue, reflects on the renewed peace process between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with particular attention to the contribution of women and civil society.
The conversation explores the creation of MWMN’s Turkish Antenna in 2019 and the role of its experts, including Esra, Ayşe Betül Çelik and Sevtap Yokuş Veznedaroğlu, in the parliamentary commission on the next steps of the peace process. Drawing on her research with women mediators and negotiators, Esra distinguishes between coercive resistance and more subtle forms that limit women’s influence, stressing the need for protection, stronger support structures and greater awareness to achieve meaningful inclusion.
The episode is part of #HerStories, the podcast of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network, produced in collaboration with IAI and Women In International Security Italy, dedicated to the voices of women mediators and peacebuilders from the Mediterranean.