Turkey formally leaves Intl. treaty combatting violence against women

Turkey has formally withdrawn from an international treaty aimed at preventing violence against women, a controversial move denounced by rights groups but defended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Istanbul Convention, whose full name is the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, was opened for signing in May 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey.

The binding treaty, the first of its kind in the world as its name suggests, was created to require governments to adopt legislation aimed at prosecuting crimes against women, including femicide, domestic abuse, marital rape, and female genital mutilation, and ending the impunity of perpetrators.

The convention has so far been signed by 45 countries and the European Union. It came into force on August 1, 2014. Turkey became the first signatory to ratify the convention, followed by 34 other countries from 2013 till today. 

However, Turkey on Thursday formally exited the Istanbul convention, announcing that it would cease to be effective in the country from July 1, 2021, a move that infuriated rights groups and triggered protest rallies.

They say Erdogan's decision would put women at greater risk of violence when femicide is allegedly prevalent in the country.

The Turkish leader, however, defended the move, insisting that Turkey's commitment to end violence against women would not suffer because of his decision.

“Some circles are trying to portray our withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention as a step backwards in our battle with violence against women,” Erdogan told a national action plan to combat violence against women in capital Ankara on Thursday.

“Our battle did not start with the Istanbul Convention and it will not end with our withdrawal from the treaty,” he added, as thousands of people set to hold protest rallies across Turkey later in the day. 

Istanbul police fire tear gas at banned Women’s Day demonstration

Police in Turkish city of Istanbul have fired tear gas at participants in the Women’s Day rally.

The Turkish president sparked outrage in March when he announced his decision to pull out of the treaty. He also angered women back in 2016 when he recommended them to have three children and suggested that a woman was “incomplete” if she did not have any.

Separately on Thursday, Erdogan's top press aide Fahrettin Altun in a bid to justify the withdrawal in March said that the Istanbul Convention’s references to gender-based abuses had been “hijacked by people attempting to normalize homosexuality.”

He stressed that the LGBTQ movement is “incompatible” with Turkey's social and family values.

Thousands protest Turkey's withdrawal from women's treaty

Thousands of protesters take to the streets in Istanbul after Turkey withdrew from the world

According to the rights group We Will Stop Femicide Platform, 300 women were murdered in Turkey last year, while 189 others have been killed so far this year.

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