Women hold placards defending the Istanbul Convention during a protest rally in Ankara on Saturday.
“Reverse your decision, apply the treaty!” chanted thousands of people during a protest in the Kadikoy neighbourhood on the Asian side of Istanbul on Saturday. “This move is a huge setback to these efforts and all the more deplorable because it compromises the protection of women in Turkey, across Europe and beyond,” Council of Europe Secretary-General Marija Pejcinovic Buric said.
Conservatives had claimed the charter damages family unity and encourages divorce, and that its references to equality were being used by the LGBT community to gain broader acceptance in society. Gokce Gokcen, deputy chairperson of the main opposition CHP party, said abandoning the treaty meant “keeping women second-class citizens and letting them be killed”.Even the pro-government Women and Democracy Association , whose deputy chair is Erdogan’s younger daughter, expressed some unease, saying the Istanbul Convention “played an important role in the fight against violence”.