ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey withdrew early on Saturday from a major European treaty protecting women from violence that was the first country it signed ten years ago to bear the name of its largest city.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nightly decree overturning Turkey’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a blow to women’s rights defenders, who say the deal is crucial to combating domestic violence . Hundreds of women gathered on Saturday in demonstrations across Turkey to protest the measure.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, described the decision as “devastating”.
“This measure represents a huge setback in these efforts and even more deplorable because it compromises the protection of women in Turkey, throughout Europe and beyond,” she said.
The Istanbul Convention states that men and women have equal rights and obliges state authorities to take measures to prevent gender-based violence against women, protect victims and prosecute perpetrators.
Some Erdogan-oriented Islamist party officials had advocated a revision of the agreement, arguing that it is incompatible with Turkey’s conservative values by encouraging divorce and undermining traditional family unity.
Critics also argue that the treaty promotes homosexuality through the use of categories such as gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. They see it as a threat to Turkish families. Hate speech has been on the rise in Turkey and the country’s interior minister described LGBT people as “perverts” in a tweet. Erdogan has completely denied its existence.
Women’s groups and their allies who have protested to keep the convention intact immediately called demonstrations across the country under the slogan “Withdraw the decision, enforce the treaty.” They said their struggle for years would not be erased in one night.
“We were fighting every day for the Istanbul Convention to be implemented and for women to live. We now know that the Istanbul Convention has been completely repealed, “Dilan Akyuz, 30, joined other women protesting in Istanbul.” Today we are very angry. We can no longer bear a single death of a woman. We have no tolerance for that. “
Human rights groups say violence and murder of women is on the rise in Turkey, a statement the interior minister described on Saturday as a “complete lie”.
A total of 77 women have been killed since the beginning of the year, according to the We Stop Stop Femicide Platform. Some 409 women died in 2020, with dozens found dead in suspicious circumstances, according to the group.
Numerous women’s rights groups criticized the decision, saying laws that protect women are not properly enforced. The women’s advocacy group, Coalition of Turkey, said the withdrawal of a human rights agreement was the first in Turkey. “It is clear that this decision will further encourage women killers, harassers and rapists,” her statement said.
Turkey’s justice minister said the government was committed to combating violence against women.
“We continue to resolutely protect the honor of our people, family and our social fabric,” he tweeted to Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul.
Erdogan has repeatedly stressed the “holiness” of the family and called on women to have three children. Its communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said the government’s motto was “Powerful families, powerful society.”
Many women suffer physical or sexual violence at the hands of their husbands or partners, but there are no updated official statistics. The Istanbul Convention requires states to collect data.
More than a thousand women and allies gathered in Istanbul, wearing masks and holding banners. There was a strong police presence in the area and the demonstration ended without serious skirmishes.
They shouted pro-LGBT slogans and called for Erdogan’s resignation. They were encouraged when a woman speaking through a megaphone said, “Millions of women cannot be locked up in their homes. You can’t remove them from the streets and squares. “
“As women, we now think the withdrawal is a direct attack on women’s rights and a direct attack on the rights of modern young women, in particular,” said 21-year-old protester Ebru Batur. “This, of course, makes us feel insecure and just as our rights are appropriated.”
Turkey was the first country to sign the Council of Europe’s “Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence” at a committee of ministers meeting in Istanbul in 2011. The law entered into force in 2014. and the Turkish Constitution says that international agreements have had the force of law.
Some lawyers said on Saturday that the treaty is still active, arguing that the president cannot withdraw without the approval of parliament, which unanimously ratified the Istanbul Convention in 2012.
But Erdogan gained great powers with his re-election in 2018, and launched Turkey which went from a parliamentary system of government to an executive presidency.
The Justice Minister wrote on Twitter that while parliament approves treaties that the executive branch puts in place, the executive also has the authority to withdraw from them.
Women lawmakers from Turkey’s main opposition party said they would not recognize the decree and called it another “coup d’état” in parliament and a usurpation of the rights of 42 million women.
The German Foreign Ministry joined the criticism, saying that “the withdrawal of the Istanbul Convention is a wrong signal for Europe, but especially for women in Turkey.”
“A few weeks ago, President Erdogan introduced an action plan for human rights that also includes the fight against domestic violence and violence against women,” the German ministry said in a statement. “Abandoning a major Council of Europe convention calls into question the seriousness of Turkey when it comes to the goals mentioned in this action plan.”
“Clearly, neither cultural, religious, nor other national traditions can serve as a disguise for ignoring violence against women,” Germany said.
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Mehmet Guzel contributed from Istanbul and Kirsten Grieshaber contributed from Berlin.