ADANA - Stating that the AKP has made irrational decisions in order to feed off the chaos, ÇHD Vice President Lawyer Ümit Büyükdağ said, "It is trying to do this through women, Kurds and opponents."

 

Turkey withdrew from the İstanbul Convention overnight with President Erdoğan's Presedential Decree. The decision was published in the Official Gazette. Turkey was the first country to sign the contract that protected women from psychological violence, persistent pursuit, physical violence, rape, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, forced abortion, forced sterilization and rape.

 

The Vice President of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD), Attorney Ümit Büyükdağ evaluated the decision to withdrew from the contract.

 

IRRATIONAL

 

Stating that the AKP is experiencing a serious political and economic crisis and is trying to cover these crises with artificial agendas, Büyükdağ said that the decision to withdraw from the contract is stems from AKP being stuck. Büyükdağ said: "This is also an effort to make people stop talkin about economy. And doing so, he has to look cute to his small partner and his marginalized voter base. This effort is now managed by irrational decisions. The law suit to ban the HDP and withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention is just the beginning. He might take more irrational decisions in the upcoming days. We have to be ready", adding that more painful days await the country.

 

3 MONTH NOTICE

 

Underlining that the withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention has no legal basis,  Büyükdağ said that the international agreement cannot be terminated by the President's decision unless a law is enacted in the Parliament. Pointing out that the authority to terminate an international agreement is not an ordinary authority, Büyükdağ said, "If it is accepted that the President can terminate a Council of Europe Convention in this way, why not accept that he can also terminate the European Convention on Human Rights tomorrow? If the path to terminating international conventions with presedential decrees is once opened, no one can predict where that path leads. Article 80 of the convention obliges the state party that wants to withdraw from the contract to notify the General Secretariat of the Council of Europe. You withdraw from the convention 3 months after that notice. This notification hasn't been done yet. I hope the law suits filed against this withdrawal give results so that we will not withdraw. This government can not explain the withdrawal or their justification for this withdrawal to any women."

 

DEADLOCK OF AKP ADMINISTRATION 

 

Mentioning the statement made by Presidential Communications President Fahrettin Altun who said, 'The fact that Turkey decided to withdraw from the İstanbul Convention doesn't mean that Turkey gave up on protecting the women. Turkey will battle domestic violence even though it has withdrew from the convention', Büyükdağ said: "The statement made by Altun today is astounding. It is problematic however you look at it. It is an absurd text in which many fundamental rights are violated, especially the prohibition of discrimination. As a matter of fact, they removed the statement from their site. We are face to face with people who have no idea what they are doing and they are trying to rule Turkey. The developments of this week clearly showed that AKP can not rule and feeds off the chaos as they can not rule. And they are trying to do this through women, Kurds and opponents."

 

WOMEN WILL WIN

 

Emphasizing that now, they will first resort to legal means to annul the decision and create local and international public opinion, Büyükdağ stated that they will continue to state that the convention is still in force at every opportunity and more importantly, they will never give up insisting on the convention. Büyükdağ said: "All necessary steps will be taken by the components of this struggle to annul this unlawfulness but more importantly, women continue to take to streets demanding Turkey to implement İstanbul Convention. As the women from all over Turkey we will not allow them to usurp our rights. We will shout out that they can not stop us and we will not give up on our rights, or the İstanbul Convention until they come to their senses. The women will win."

 

 

MA / Hamdullah Kesen