ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey withdrew on Saturday morning from an important European treaty that protects women from violence, which was the first country to sign ten years ago and which bears the name of its largest city.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s overnight decree revoking Turkey’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a blow to women’s rights defenders, who say the deal is crucial to tackling domestic violence. Hundreds of women gathered in demonstrations across Turkey on Saturday to protest the change.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, called the decision “devastating”.
“This change is a major setback for these efforts and even more deplorable because it undermines the protection of women in Turkey, across 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 officials in Erdogan’s Islamic party advocated a revision of the agreement, arguing that it is inconsistent with Turkey’s conservative values in encouraging divorce and undermining traditional family unity.
Critics also claim that the treaty 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 has been on the rise in Turkey, and the country’s interior minister described LGBT people as “perverts” in a tweet. Erdogan rejected his existence completely.
Groups of women and their allies who have protested to keep the convention intact immediately called for demonstrations across the country on Saturday under the slogan “Withdraw the decision, implement the treaty”. They said that their years’ struggle would not be erased in one night.
“We were fighting every day for the Istanbul Convention to be implemented and the women to live. Now we hear that the Istanbul Convention has been completely revoked, ”Dilan Akyuz, 30, who joined other women who protested in Istanbul. “We are very angry today. We can no longer bear even the death of a woman. We have no tolerance for that. “
Human rights groups say violence and murder of women are on the rise in Turkey, a statement the Interior Minister called 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 were killed in 2020, with dozens found dead in suspicious circumstances, according to the group.
Several women’s rights groups criticized the decision, saying that laws that protect women are applied inappropriately. The advocacy group Women’s Coalition Turkey said the withdrawal of a human rights agreement was the first in Turkey. “It is clear that this decision will further encourage women murderers, harassers, rapists,” the 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, the family and our social fabric with determination,” tweeted Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul.
Erdogan repeatedly emphasized the “sanctity” of the family and asked 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 there are no up-to-date official statistics. The Istanbul Convention requires states to collect data.
More than a thousand women and allies gathered in Istanbul, wearing masks and holding flags. 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 applauded when a woman speaking through a megaphone said: “You cannot close millions of women in their homes. You cannot erase them from the streets and the squares. “
“As women, we now think that withdrawal is a direct attack on the rights of women and a direct attack on the rights of modern young women, in particular,” said Ebru Batur, a 21-year-old protester. “It is clear that this makes us insecure and as if our rights are appropriate.”
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 came into force in 2014, and the Turkey’s constitution says international agreements are legally binding.
Some lawyers said on Saturday that the treaty is still active, arguing that the president cannot withdraw from it without the approval of parliament, which unanimously ratified the Istanbul Convention in 2012.
But Erdogan gained broad powers with his re-election in 2018, prompting Turkey to switch from a parliamentary system of government to an executive presidency.
The Minister of Justice wrote on Twitter that, although parliament approves the treaties that the Executive puts into effect, the Executive also has the authority to withdraw from them.
Lawmakers from Turkey’s main opposition party said they would not recognize the decree and called it another “coup” in parliament and a usurpation of the rights of 42 million women.
Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs joined the criticism, saying that “the withdrawal of the Istanbul Convention is a wrong signal for Europe, but especially for women in Turkey”.
“Just a few weeks ago, President Erdogan presented 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 an important Council of Europe convention questions Turkey’s seriousness with regard to the objectives mentioned in that action plan.”
“It is clear that not even cultural, religious or national traditions can serve as a cover to ignore violence against women,” said Germany.
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Mehmet Guzel contributed from Istanbul and Kirsten Grieshaber contributed from Berlin.