ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey withdrew early Saturday from a major European treaty protecting women from violence that it was the first country to sign ten years ago and bear the name of its largest city.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s overnight decision annulling Turkey’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a blow to women’s advocates, who say the agreement is crucial to combating domestic violence. Hundreds of women gathered in Istanbul on Saturday to protest against the move.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, calls the decision ‘devastating’.
“This step is a huge setback for these efforts and all the more regrettable because it jeopardizes the protection of women in Turkey, across Europe and beyond,” she said.
The Istanbul Convention stipulates that men and women have equal rights and that the state authorities are obliged to prevent sexual violence against women, protect victims and prosecute culprits.
Some officials of Erdogan’s Islam-oriented party have called for a review of the agreement, arguing that it violates Turkey’s conservative values by encouraging divorce and undermining traditional family unity.
Critics also claim that the treaty promotes homosexuality by using categories such as gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. They see it as a threat to Turkish families. Hate speech has increased in Turkey, including the interior minister who described LGBT people as ‘perverts’ in a tweet. Erdogan completely rejected their existence.
Women’s groups and their allies who protested to keep the event intact immediately called for nationwide protests on Saturday under the slogan “Withdraw the decision, implement the treaty.” They said their years-long struggle would not be wiped out in one night.
Rights groups say violence against and murder of women is on the rise in Turkey, but Interior Minister called it a “complete lie” on Saturday.
A total of 77 women have been killed since the beginning of the year, according to the We Will Stop Femicide Platform. About 409 women died in 2020, and according to the group, dozens were found dead under suspicious circumstances.
Numerous women’s rights groups rejected the decision. The advocacy group Women’s Coalition Turkey said the withdrawal from a human rights agreement was the first in Turkey. “It is clear that this decision will further encourage the murderers of women, harassers, rapists,” their statement read.
Turkey’s justice minister has said the government is committed to combating violence against women.
“We continue to protect the honor of our people, the family and our social structure with determination,” tweeted Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul.
Erdogan has repeatedly stressed the “sanctity” 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 experience physical or sexual violence at the hands of their husbands or partners, but official statistics are not available. According to the Istanbul Convention, states must collect data.
Hundreds of women and allies gathered in Istanbul, wearing masks and carrying banners. Their demonstration has been allowed so far, but the area was surrounded by police and a curfew rule was started with the coronavirus.
They shouted pro-LGBT slogans and asked Erdogan to resign. They cheered when a woman talking through a megaphone said, ‘You can not lock millions of women in their homes. You can not sweep them away from the streets and squares. ‘
Turkey was the first country to sign the Council of Europe’s Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence ‘at a 2011 ministerial committee held in Istanbul. The law came into force in 2014 and the Constitution of Turkey states that international agreements have the force of law.
Some lawyers claimed on Saturday that the treaty was still active, arguing that the president could not withdraw from it without the approval of parliament, which ratified the 2012 Istanbul Convention.
But with his re-election in 2018, Erdogan gained comprehensive powers and set Turkey in motion from a parliamentary system of government to an executive presidency.
The Minister of Justice wrote on Twitter that although parliament approves treaties that implement the executive, the executive also has the power to withdraw from them.
Women lawmakers from Turkey’s largest opposition party have said they will not recognize the decision, calling it another “coup” in parliament, which unanimously accepted the treaty, and an exercise in the rights of 42 million women .