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Istanbul, Turkey – Turkey officially withdrew from the Istanbul Convention on Thursday, an international treaty aimed at preventing gender-based violence, because activists promised to continue fighting as more and more women demand protection of their rights.
Protests were planned to be held again across the country on Thursday night and weekends, as the opposition party’s call to withdraw was rejected by the Council of State on Tuesday.
This move comes after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a midnight decree on March 20 to cancel Turkey’s ratification of the convention. Legislation aimed at protecting women It was signed by 45 countries and the European Union in 2011.
Turkey was the first country to sign the Council of Europe Treaty at the summit in Istanbul and the first country to withdraw after 10 years.
The retreat drew widespread condemnation from all over the world and triggered months of national protests in a country where domestic violence is prevalent. The monitoring organization recorded at least 300 female killings and 171 suspicious female deaths last year.
Although an important battle for rights activists has been lost, more women than ever are talking about the Istanbul Convention and are motivated to take action to defend the meaning it represents.
Withdraw to “empower the offender”
We Will Stop Femicides, Turkey’s largest women’s rights organization, said its support rate has soared in recent years.
The platform records the rate of female killings, provides the media with up-to-date information about ongoing court cases, and provides legal support for families who have lost loved ones or women who have suffered violence.
“The withdrawal of the Istanbul Convention will empower the perpetrators and make the victims more powerless. Therefore, we must undertake the protection work that the authorities should do,” Gulsum Kav, the co-founder of the platform, told Al Jazeera.
The activist who turned from a doctor to a career was named one of the 100 most inspiring and influential women in the world by the BBC last year.
The organization started with a few activists and was inspired by the brutal killing of Munevver Karabulut in 2009. Munevver Karabulut, a high school student, was cut into pieces by her boyfriend and left in the trash can.
“At the time, women slaughter were not called women slaughter, they were just called’murders,'” Kraft said. “The media did not regard the killing of women as a shocking news report, but as a “real life story” issue of Weekend Magazine.”
The suspect in Karabut’s death was the nephew of a wealthy businessman. He did not surrender until 197 days later and he was captured. Karabulut’s family said that the then Istanbul police chief blamed her for her killing, saying they should not allow her to go out with a man at night.
This fledgling militant group helped Karabut’s family seek justice, and they worked to raise awareness about gender-based violence and the killing of women.
“With modernization and urbanization, our society is changing, and women need their rights more than ever before,” Kraft said. “Women are changing, but men and traditional society remain the same.
“Addressing this difference in mentality is at the core of our activism.”
Enough protection?
In recent years, Turkey has been accused of regressing on human rights issues, especially with regard to women, ethnic minorities and LGBTQ communities.
The Communications Bureau claimed that the withdrawal of the Istanbul Convention was due to the agreement being “hijacked by a group of people trying to normalize homosexuality”, saying it was “inconsistent with Turkish social and family values.”
Although President Erdogan released his own anti-violence action plan on Thursday, with goals including preventive services and judicial assistance, few hope that it will provide adequate protection in a society that is increasingly concerned about religiously motivated traditions. .
“Some circles try to describe our withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention as a step backwards in our fight against violence against women. Our battle does not start with the Istanbul Convention, nor will it end with our withdrawal from the treaty,” Eldo Ann said.
In addition to setting up a helpline for women who have suffered violence so that they can be intercepted before potential killings occur, we will stop the killing of women, saying that its greatest success is the introduction of Law No. 6284, which provides the Istanbul Convention for the Protection of Women.
Now this work is in danger.
However, they continue to protest regularly, usually holding placards with the faces of women killed by men. Demonstrators often face conflicts and detentions with the police, but this does not prevent the support of people of all ages, backgrounds and genders.
Together “feel stronger”
A frequent visitor to the protests is Mutlu Kaya. She was shot by her boyfriend in 2015 when she was 19 years old. She had previously stood out in the Turkish TV draft contest Sesi Cok Guzel, similar to The Voice.
She is now in a wheelchair. In March last year, her sister was killed by a man who claimed to be her boyfriend, and Kaya’s lawyer was killed by her husband in front of their children in 2019.
Aysen Ece Kavas is another founding member of We Will Stop Femicides. She was only 18 years old when she was involved in this cause-her motivation was her emotional reaction to the killing of Karabulut, who was about her age at the time.
In recent years, Turkey has been accused of regressing on human rights issues, especially for women, ethnic minorities and LGBTQ communities [Liz Cookman/Al Jazeera]
In 2019, she was arrested by the police during a demonstration and charged with insulting the president, but the case was later dropped.
“Women’s difficulties begin at birth,” she said. “Many women cannot overcome these difficulties on their own, but if we are together, we feel stronger and can act more decisively.”
In 2017, the organization helped launch the Istanbul Women’s Committee, which brings together political parties, trade unions, and other organizations once a month to discuss solutions to the problems faced by women.
Since then, the formula has been extended to schools, universities and LGBTQ communities throughout Turkey.
“At the Women’s Conference, we have people of different education levels, political beliefs and ages-it doesn’t matter. We are not interested in the political agenda, and we are defending the rights of all women,” Cavas said.
“But what we are doing is not just about women, but about injustice.”
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