Demonstrators wearing protective face masks hold up placards during a demonstration for a better implementation of the Istanbul Convention and the Turkish Law 6284 for the protection of the family and prevention of violence against women, in Istanbul Yasin AKGUL AFP
France 24, August 5th, 2020
https://www.france24.com/en/20200805-thousands-protest-in-turkey-against-domestic-violence
Istanbul (AFP)
Thousands of women in Turkey took to the streets on Wednesday to demand that the government does not withdraw from a landmark treaty on preventing domestic violence.
The protests were the biggest in recent weeks as anger grows over the rising number of women killed by men in the past decade since the Istanbul Convention was agreed in 2011.
The convention is the world’s first binding instrument to prevent and combat violence against women, from marital rape to female genital mutilation.
Hundreds of women in Istanbul rallied in support of the treaty, an AFP correspondent said, holding placards saying, “Apply the Istanbul Convention” and “Long live women’s solidarity”.
“Today, throughout Turkey and across political divides, all women need this convention. We are convinced that, with the strength of the women’s solidarity, we will prevent the withdrawal,” Benazir Coskun, 31, told AFP in Istanbul.
In the Aegean region of Izmir, police intervened to stop the women’s protest and dozens chose to start a sit-in protest, women’s rights group Nar Women’s Solidarity said on Twitter. The group claimed 10 women had been detained.
There were also protests in Ankara and in the southern cities of Adana and Antalya.
The demonstrations began last month after a ruling party official said the convention was “wrong” and speculated over possible withdrawal.
In recent years, women’s rights groups have accused authorities of failing to implement law 6284 — created following Turkey’s ratification of the treaty in 2012 — leaving women vulnerable to violence often by their partners, husbands or relatives.
But for some conservative groups and individuals, they claim the convention encourages homosexuality and is a force “destroying” the unity of Turkish families.
The issue has even appeared to divide the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s family, with one association whose deputy chair is his daughter Sumeyye supporting the treaty while an organisation linked to his son Bilal has come out against the convention.
Rights group “We Will Stop Femicide Platform” says 146 women were killed by men in the first half of 2020.
The group says 474 women were killed last year while the figure was 180 in 2010.
Turkish Women Rally
Against Domestic Violence
as Ruling Party Contemplates
Leaving Key Rights Treaty
Demonstrators wearing protective face masks hold up placards with names of women during a demonstration for a better implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Istanbul on Wednesday.
By Gul Tuysuz, CNN, August 5, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/europe/turkey-gender-protests-istanbul-convention-intl/index.html
(CNN) Women poured into rallies across Turkey on Wednesday over fears of Ankara’s potential withdrawal from a European treaty on gender-based violence.
Chanting their support for the treaty, women chanted, “The choice is ours, the decision is ours, the night is ours, the street is ours.”
In recent weeks, the Council of Europe Convention on combating and preventing violence against women has stirred public debate. The agreement is commonly known as the Istanbul Convention, after being signed in the Turkish megacity in May 2011.
Women at the rallies Wednesday held posters reading, “The istanbul Convention is born out of women’s blood,” and “We will not allow femicides.”
Women chant slogans and wave signs during the demonstration in Istanbul on Wednesday.
The heated public discussions come amid an increase in the country’s domestic violence cases over the past few months.
Last month, the killing of 27-year-old Pinar Gultekin by her ex-boyfriend sparked outrage, galvanizing Turkey’s women’s movements.
In 2020, 205 women in Turkey have been killed. In 2019, 417 died in domestic violence cases, according to activist reports.
Meanwhile, a small but organized effort has lobbied Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to withdraw the country from the Istanbul Convention. The detractors cited “the erosion of family values” and traditional “gender roles,” and the importation of “Western values.” They also claim the convention promotes “LGBT lifestyles.”
“There are two issues in this convention which we do not approve of. First is the gender issue and the other is sexual orientation issue,” AKP deputy chair Numan Kurtulmuş said in a televised interview. “There are also other issues but these two have been the concepts which have played into the hands of and creates spaces for the LGBT and marginal elements to work within.”
Activists dismiss those concerns as a pretext for eliminating gender-based protections.
“Because they aren’t able to openly say they want women as their domestic slaves and the freedom to beat women at will, they latch on to LGBTI+ rights as a more ‘socially acceptable’ pretext to attack the convention, hoping rampant homophobia will do the trick,” said activist Feride Eralp, a member of the Women are Stronger Together platform.
The Istanbul Convention addresses systemic violence against women and the state’s role in preventing circumstances leading to femicide and domestic abuse.
“Those who want Turkey to leave the convention usually don’t accept that there is specific violence against women,” said Meryem Ilayda Atlas, editorial coordinator at the pro-government newspaper Daily Sabah and a women’s rights activist. “And if this is really about not liking parts of the convention, then instead of pulling out, let’s go negotiate those clauses, let’s clarify them.”
She added: “But I really do not understand how those who want Turkey to leave the convention come away with ‘destroying the Turkish family’ from a document that focuses on preventing violence against women.”
Activists say women are transcending political divides to publicly reject a possible withdrawal from the convention.
“We may be on different sides politically, vote for different parties, have different positions on the AKP and other issues, but the Istanbul Convention is about keeping women alive, free from violence, prejudice, without fear of being killed,” said activist Eralp. “This is something we can all agree on as women.”
Wednesday’s protests come after nearly a decade of intense public debate about women’s rights. In 2011, a landmark European Court of Human Rights ruling said that Turkish authorities failed to protect a woman from her abusive ex-husband, effectively allowing his pattern of domestic violence to lead to the killing of her mother at gunpoint.
That case catapulted Turkey’s domestic violence issues to the international stage, and prompted the government to host the Istanbul Convention.
“Every gain for the women’s movement in Turkey is built on the shoulders of women who have suffered and are not with us anymore,” said Eralp.
Nine years later, the convention has taken center stage in Turkey as well as in some other signatory countries. Poland has signaled that it is considering leaving the convention. The issue is also being debated in Croatia and Serbia.
“This assault against the Istanbul Convention is the outcome of a global movement, known as the anti-gender movement. We see this taking root in Poland, Croatia, Serbia and across various European countries,” said Eralp. “All that is happening here in Turkey is basically a Turkish translation of a foreign political ideology.”