ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey early on Saturday withdrew from a historic European treaty to protect women from violence, which it was the first country to sign 10 years ago and which bears the name of its largest city.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decree repealing Turkey’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a blow to women’s rights advocates, who say the agreement is crucial to combating domestic violence. Hundreds of women gathered in Istanbul on Saturday to protest the move.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, called the decision “devastating”.
“This move is a huge setback to these efforts and all the more regrettable as it endangers the protection of women in Turkey, across Europe and beyond,” she said.
The Istanbul Convention states that men and women have equal rights and requires government agencies to take steps to prevent gender-based violence against women, protect victims and prosecute perpetrators.
Some officials from Erdogan’s Islam-oriented party had argued for a revision of the agreement, arguing that it contradicts Turkey’s conservative values by encouraging divorce and undermining traditional family unity.
Critics also argue that the convention promotes homosexuality through the use of categories such as gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. They see this as a threat to Turkish families. Hate speech is on the rise in Turkey, including the interior minister who tweeted LGBT people as “perverts”. Erdogan has completely rejected their existence.
Women’s groups and their allies who have protested to keep the convention intact immediately called for demonstrations across the country on Saturday under the slogan “Retract the decision, carry out the treaty”. They said their years of struggle would not be wiped out overnight.
Rights groups say violence against and murder of women is on the rise in Turkey, but the interior minister called that a “complete lie” on Saturday.
According to the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, a total of 77 women have been murdered since the beginning of this year. According to the group, about 409 women were murdered in 2020 and dozens were found dead under suspicious circumstances.
Numerous women’s rights groups rejected the decision. Advocacy group Women’s Coalition Turkey said the withdrawal from a human rights agreement was a first in Turkey. “It is clear that this decision will further encourage female killers, harassment and rapists,” their statement said.
Turkey’s Justice Minister said the government is committed to fighting violence against women.
“We continue to protect the honor of our people, families and our social fabric 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 current official statistics are not available. The Istanbul Convention requires states to collect data.
Hundreds of women and allies gathered in Istanbul, wearing masks and banners. Their demonstration has so far been allowed, but the area has been surrounded by police and a curfew for the corona virus begins in the evening.
They shouted pro-LGBT slogans and called for Erdogan’s resignation. They cheered when a woman speaking through a megaphone said, “You can’t lock up millions of women in their homes. You cannot erase them from the streets and squares. “
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 that met in Istanbul in 2011. The law came into effect in 2014, and according to Turkey’s constitution, international agreements have the force of the law.
Some lawyers claimed on Saturday that the treaty is still in effect, arguing that the president cannot withdraw from it without the approval of parliament, which ratified the Istanbul Convention in 2012.
But Erdogan gained a lot of power with his re-election in 2018, transforming Turkey from a parliamentary system of government into an executive presidency.
The Justice Minister wrote on Twitter that while parliament approves treaties that put the executive into effect, the executive also has the power to withdraw.
Women lawmakers from Turkey’s main opposition party said they will not recognize the decree, calling it a new “coup” on parliament, which unanimously accepted the treaty, and a usurpation of the rights of 42 million women.