ANKARA: Women across Turkey gathered on Sunday in support of a landmark treaty on combating violence against women as fears grow over Ankara’s possible withdrawal from the agreement.
The demonstrations are part of the rising anger in Turkey at the growing number of women killed, including the murder of university student Pinar Gultekin this month.
There is speculation Turkey could withdraw from the Istanbul Convention that Ankara ratified in 2012, which is the world’s first binding instrument to prevent and combat violence against women, from marital rape to female genital mutilation.
The ruling party’s deputy chairman, Numan Kurtulmus, earlier this month described signing the convention as “wrong” and suggested Turkey could withdraw.
In an Ankara park where there was a heavy police presence, dozens of women came together on Sunday for a meeting organized by Ankara Women’s Platform in support of the treaty.
“If this convention is taken away from us, all women will be alone,” Cansu Ertas of the Ankara Women’s Platform told AFP. “The state will have dismissed the responsibility that falls on them” to protect women, she added.
In Istanbul, local media reported women were blocked from entering a park and so dozens decided to walk in the streets of Besiktas district, chanting, “we will not leave the streets or the squares,” according to video posted online.
For women’s rights activists, Turkey may have ratified the convention and established law 6284 to protect women but it is not implemented properly, leaving women vulnerable to violence often by their former partners, husbands or relatives.
The murder of Gultekin reportedly at the hands of her ex-boyfriend has become one more femicide known across Turkey as women demand more protection from the state.
Rights group “We Will Stop Femicides Platform” says 146 women were killed by men in the first half of 2020.
Last year, 474 women were killed, according to the group. It was 440 in 2018.
The protests in Turkey come after the Polish justice minister said at the weekend his country would start preparation on the formal process to withdraw from the treaty on Monday.
Women gather across Turkey in support of anti-violence treaty
https://arab.news/9a8s7
Women gather across Turkey in support of anti-violence treaty
- Turkey may withdraw from conventions to prevent violence against women, just weeks after the murder of a female student shocked the country
- Rights group “We Will Stop Femicides Platform” says 146 women were killed by men in the first half of 2020 in Turkey.
US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon
- “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
- Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured
WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”
