The move sent shock waves through a country struggling with domestic violence and high-level homicide.
It is unclear why Erdogan made the decision to withdraw from the convention. Defenders of Turkish women’s rights have protested against the withdrawal, while some conservatives believe it harms traditional family values.
The public debate surrounding the convention culminated in August when religious and conservative groups made an intensive effort to promote the convention, as it humiliated family values and advocated for the LGBTQ community.
Erdogan’s cabinet has tried to reassure people that the withdrawal from the convention will not mean the downfall of regulations on domestic violence and women’s rights. “The guarantee of women’s rights is present in our current laws and especially in our constitution. Our legal system is dynamic and strong enough to apply new regulations as needed,” Zehra Zumrut Selcuk, Minister of Family and Social Policy, said on Twitter.
The main opposition in Turkey calls the move an attempt to divert ‘women to second-class citizens’, and promises to return the country to the convention, saying the current government cannot secure the rights of women and children. “You are not succeeding in protecting the right to life,” Gokce Gokcen, an opposition MP, said on Twitter.
A coalition of women’s groups said the presidential order withdrawing from the convention felt like a “nightmare” and by withdrawing from the convention, the government announced it would no longer protect women from violence.
“It is clear that this withdrawal will empower murderers, abusers and rapists of women,” the coalition statement read.
In Turkey, numbers on homicides are not issued separately, but a non-governmental group for women’s rights puts the number of women killed in 2021 at 77.