In conjunction with International Women’s Day, civil society organizations defending women’s rights in Turkey renewed their calls for the government to return to the provisions of the international Istanbul Convention and implement it fully in order to protect Turkish women from violence after Ankara officially withdrew from the agreement in July of 2021.
That withdrawal is rejected by those Turkish institutions that constantly condemn the killing of women by men and the fact that the judicial authorities tolerate their killers, according to the accusations they bring to the local judiciary.
According to “Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu” (We will stop women homicide platform) in the year 2020, 300 women were killed and 171 killings were under suspicious circumstances.
In 2021, 280 were killed and 217 killings were suspicious. The numbers published by the platform periodically show that 123 out of 280 women were killed in the past year, at the hands of men who were related to their victims, such as a husband, a divorced person, a brother, a child, a father and other men. These crimes are repeated on a daily basis in various Turkish territories.
In this context, Gullistan Yarkin, Kurdish activist and member of the Human Rights Association in Turkey, spoke about this dangerous phenomenon, stressing that “women’s organizations in our geography have been fighting against patriarchy, male violence, and state violence for many years.
“Women's organizations including Kurdish women’s organizations use many tools to empower women. They organize large-scale street demonstrations, organize petition campaigns, monitor the hearings, participate in the hearings, hold press releases, urge the Turkish judiciary to punish the perpetrators of sexual violence and murder, provide free legal aid and shelter for women who are victims of male-violence and state violence, refer women to specialists for psychological aid and medical aid, help victims of male-violence to document sexual torture and rape.
In statements to Majalla, she added, "Women organizations in our geography also organize meetings with governors and state officials (if they are able to), urge deputies to prepare parliamentary questions on violence against women, hold meetings with international organizations, establish common platforms with other women's organizations and LGBTI+ organizations, raise awareness against the termination of the Istanbul Convention, they use social media effectively and organize various events.”
She also said, "Women organizations in our geography diligently work to stop femicide and violence against women.”
Yarkin also revealed the reasons for the widespread phenomenon of femicide in Turkey. In this regard, she said, "The dominant culture of the society expects women to accept their subaltern position and obey men, in other words obey their husbands, partners, fathers, older brothers and the state forces. If women experience domestic violence or humiliation, male dominated culture expect women to accept them without resistance.
She added, “When we look at the increasing number of femicide cases and violence against women in recent years, we see that the most murders are committed by husbands and lovers when women want to divorce their husbands, break up with their partner or when they reject their demands. Sex worker women are also the target of these murders. Apart from this, different reasons such as cheating are also shown as the reason for murder by murderer men.”
Yarkin also said that murderer men do not recognize and allow the emancipation of women. “It's highly related to their desire for power over women,” she added.
She explained that “between the 1990s and the 2010s women in our region have become stronger in comparison to previous periods”.
“Women have had more control over their own bodies. Male violence is being criticized more and for women, male violence has relatively lost its legitimacy. Feminist ideologies and women organizations gained power. Women's resistance emerged not only in the public sphere, but also in everyday life against male violence.
“If they have chance women began to express their desire to divorce or break up with. This has resulted, in some instances, in more punishment of women by men and male-dominated organizations.
“Femicide also refers to men reminding women of their subordinate position within the male dominated sexist regime. The Turkish judiciary is also ruled by men and a male-dominated mentality. The Turkish judiciary does not give long prison sentences to the perpetrators.”
“Judges tend to make decisions that protect perpetrators, which results in an accelerated continuation of femicide,” she added.
Yarkin also said that the biggest backlash against women's empowerment and women organizations was the state's termination of the Istanbul Convention.
“The most important demand of the women organizations in our region was the implementation of the decisions in the Istanbul Convention. But let's leave aside the implementation of the decisions, the contract was terminated in 2021,” she added.
Yarkin highlighted that the male-dominated culture dominates the state organizations and officials.
“The president, parliamentarians or the ministers can make statements insulting women. The termination of the Istanbul Convention is also a result of the male-dominated anti-women and anti-LGBTI+ state approach.
“An extremely harsh rhetoric against LGBTI+ organizations gained legitimacy in government circles. The strengthening of homophobic understanding also indirectly negatively affects the gains of women.
“Additionally, state forces still use sexual violence against women under custody and prisons. Strip-search and sit and stand-up torture while women are naked are widely implemented by the guards and police officers.
“Police officers insult women with sexist curse words during home raids or while taking women into custody. They physically abuse women too,” she said.
For instance, Garibe Gezer, a Kurdish women prisoner, committed suicide in her ward in December 2021 after the sexual torture she was subjected to in Kandıra Prison.
Hozan Cane, a Kurdish woman prisoner and a musician, was also subjected to violence while she is under custody. Rojbin Çetin, another Kurdish woman and the former co-mayor of Kurdish town named Edremit municipality (a district of Van) was violently tortured in 2020 during the police home raid.
Police dogs attacked her and bit her legs in her home. She was badly beaten by the police. The torture continued 3.5 hours. When it comes to Kurdish women, the state forces implement harsher torture acts. This is also related to racism against Kurds.
The feminist activist criticized the Turkish judiciary for its leniency with criminals, explaining that "after most murders of women, men receive “unjust provocation discounts” and “good behavior” discount and they are sentenced to short-term prison because in courtrooms they say “I regret a lot”, “I loved her so much”, “I was jealous of her”, “she cheated on me” etc.
“The reflection of court decisions on society is that if a reconciliatory attitude is displayed in the courtroom, these sentences will be reduced. Some men threaten women with the following words: "I will kill you and stay in prison for a few years and get out".
“Therefore, the "unjust provocation discounts" and " good behavior discounts" practices of the judiciary strengthen the murderer candidates and contributes to the continuation of the femicide cases.”
For her part, prominent lawyer Canan Arın said, "Women use all means to do so. Women write, have TV programs, organize street protests, talk on every occasion on women’s rights, appeal to law courts during hearings.”
She told Majalla, "Women’s demands serious training on gender equality at every level of education. The real cause of violence against women is based on gender equality between sexes. This can be provided by a secular education.
“Despite of this demand, the political party in power that is a fundamentalist, turns all secular schools into religious ones so pupil are educated not to ask questions and accept whatever they were told without thinking on it. The political party in power is afraid of gender equality so much and they are trying to suppress women by all means including ignoring femicide.”
And she added, "Women’s rights are being taken back day by day. Women are trying to hold their line, to protect their existing rights instead of promoting them. Women’s main demand is to promote and apply the Istanbul Convention fully, to have gender equality in every sphere of life and to stop violence against women. In short to be considered as human beings.”
The government formed by the Justice and Development Party led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in alliance with the far-right National Movement Party, has officially withdrew from the Istanbul agreement in early July of last year, although this matter was accepted by international and local condemnations.
Associations defending women's rights in Turkey, including the Union of Women's Associations, accuse the ruling party of fighting equality between men and women, especially since Ankara withdrew from the international agreement that protects Turkish women from domestic violence and facilitates them to find alternative shelter when separated from their husbands.
Turkish women continue to take to the streets and public squares to demonstrate with the aim of calling for a return to the Istanbul Convention, despite the security authorities' use of violence to disperse these demonstrations, as happened when organizing several women's protests on the International Women's Day a few days ago.
The Turkish president had previously considered the Istanbul Convention a threat to society on the grounds that it worked to dismantle the captives in his country, which encouraged him to take the decision to withdraw from that treaty, which later led to a high rate of women's murder in Turkey and angered the United States and the European Union.
The Istanbul Convention negotiated in Turkey's largest city and signed in 2011, committed signatories to preventing and prosecuting domestic violence and promoting equality.
In mid-February, the Federation of Women's Associations called on the Turkish government to consider verbal harassment and prosecuting them a crime punishable by law, which requires amending some articles in the Turkish Penal Code, but the government has not responded to these demands so far. According to what was reported to Majalla, a source in the union, which is the largest women's bloc in the country.
