ISTANBUL: Istanbul police fired tear gas at thousands of women who took to the city's central avenue on International Women's Day on Friday in defiance of a protest ban to demand greater rights and denounce violence.
Security forces in riot gear pushed the crowds of women — some wearing colourful wigs and masks — at the entrance to the city's main pedestrianised shopping street of Istiklal Avenue, an AFP correspondent reported.
Police then used tear gas on the marchers and menaced them with dogs, causing many protesters to flee onto side streets.
The Women's Day event took place peacefully last year but just before this year's march, authorities issued a statement banning any demonstration on the city's central avenue.
Ahead of the protest the area was flooded with police who set up cordons around the central Taksim Square, while many local shops were closed.
One woman, called Ulker, speaking to AFP from behind a barrier, said: "Here is the bitter truth: There is a system, there is a state that is scared of us. I condemn this."
Thousands of demonstrators were eventually allowed into a small part of the avenue to stage the protest.
They unfurled banners that read "Feminist revolt against male violence, and poverty", and "I was born free and I will live free."
The demonstrators also chanted slogans including "We are not silent, we are not scared, we are not obeying."
The crowds then became trapped between two security cordons and were subsequently dispersed by the police using tear gas.
Women's activists have long accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government of not doing enough to stop violence against women.
In 2018, 440 women were killed in murders linked to their gender, according to the women's rights group "We Will Stop Femicide", compared with 210 in 2012.
The issue came to public attention when Turkish pop singer Sila appeared before court on complaints of having been beaten by her partner Ahmet Kural, a famous actor.
The landmark trial opened in Istanbul Thursday a day before International Women's Day.
"As you know in Turkey violence against women is very high. The government is doing nothing to stop it. That's all we can do: to come here and speak up," protester at Istiklal Avenue Gulsah said.
Women's rallies were also held in the capital Ankara, where a few hundred women protested, with small police presence.
Some chanted: "Men are killing and the state is protecting killers".
Large scale protests are rare events in Turkey since mass 2013 anti-government rallies, which were seen as a major challenge to Erdogan's government.
Istanbul police fire tear gas at banned women’s day rally
Istanbul police fire tear gas at banned women’s day rally
- Security forces in riot gear pushed crowds of women at entrance to city's main pedestrianised shopping street
- Ahead of the protest the area was flooded with police who set up cordons
Syria Kurds chief says ‘all efforts’ being made to salvage deal with Damascus
- Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal
- The two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said Thursday that “all efforts” were being made to prevent the collapse of talks on an agreement with Damascus to integrate his forces into the central government.
The remarks came days after Aleppo saw deadly clashes between the two sides before their respective leaders ordered a ceasefire.
In March, Abdi signed a deal with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by year’s end, but differences have held up its implementation.
Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal, adding in a statement that the two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism, and pledging further meetings with Damascus.
Downplaying the year-end deadline, he said the deal “did not specify a time limit for its ending or for the return to military solutions.”
He added that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process” and that he considered failure unlikely.
Abdi also repeated the SDF’s demand for decentralization, which has been rejected by Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad last year.
Turkiye, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
In Damascus this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of the Kurds’ integration, having warned the week before that patience with the SDF “is running out.”
The SDF control large swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Daesh group in Syria in 2019.
Syria last month joined the anti-IS coalition and has announced operations against the jihadist group in recent days.
