President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday hosted women at the Presidential Complex, on the occasion of International Day For The Elimination of Violence Against Women. The plight of women in conflict zones dominated Erdoğan’s speech as he decried the killing of women and children by Israel in Palestine and Lebanon. “We are in full solidarity with them,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan stated that the West turned a blind eye to the plight of women in Palestine for 14 months. “Nearly 50,000 Palestinians were killed to this day and 80% of them are innocent women and children. Children and women, as always, fell victim to attacks. Netanyahu murders women, infants, elderly. Before the very eyes of the world, this genocidal network proceeds with (their crimes),” he said, likening the Netanyahu administration to “serial murderers who derive pleasure from killing.”
The president also expressed admiration for the courage of Palestinian women, emphasizing their strength in the face of violence. “Amid the barbarities perpetrated by the massacre network, the honorable women of Palestine are setting an example for the entire world and all women through their dignified resistance against the oppressor,” the president added. He reaffirmed Türkiye’s commitment to supporting Palestinian women, saying: “We will not hesitate to show our reaction and defend your most fundamental right to life, despite the pressures of the Zionist lobby.” He said “fierce defenders of democracy and deviant movements” turned their back to the oppression of Palestinian women, referring to the LGBT+ lobby he repeatedly criticized in the past. “We will shout the truth in every platform to stop this genocide,” the president said.
Türkiye is a major opponent of Israel’s brutal campaign amounting to genocide that targets Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere. Ankara views the West as the main enabler of the war crimes committed by the Netanyahu administration with their unconditional support to what Erdoğan has previously called a “death machine.”
At a recent summit in Saudi Arabia, the president lashed out at a “handful of Western nations supplying Israel with every form of support, from political to economic, military to moral support, while the failure of Muslim countries to respond adequately has allowed the situation to reach this point.”
Erdoğan said on Monday that the hearts of Turkish women, the entirety of Türkiye beat for Palestinian women. A few hours before Erdoğan’s speech, a crowd of women convened outside the U.S. Embassy in Ankara to denounce Washington’s support for the killing of Palestinian women and children by Israel. Unlike most countries in the West where people differ with their governments on the issue and exhibit support for Palestinians, the Turkish public endorses official policy against Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians. The past year has seen major rallies of solidarity with Palestinians.
Fight against femicide
The president pledged to stand with Turkish women in their fight to preserve their dignity as he extended condolences to families of women killed in cases of violence against women. “Violence against women is betrayal against humanity,” Erdoğan stated. The president outlined his governments’ record for women’s rights and measures against domestic violence and femicide. “The state has the responsibility to punish anyone involved in this treacherous act. We are guided by this approach and took revolutionary steps on this matter, to reinforce women’s rights, preserve the family and stop violence against women. We pursued a zero-tolerance policy against violence,” he said.
One woman was killed by a partner or relative every 10 minutes worldwide in 2023 across the world, the United Nations warned Monday, stressing that femicides remained at “alarmingly high levels.” Almost 85,000 women and girls were murdered by people last year, according to a joint report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the U.N. Women’s agency published Monday. About 60% or more than 51,000 women and girls died at the hands of their partner or relative, the report found. This equates to 140 women killed per day or one every 10 minutes by those closest to them. “The home remains the most dangerous place for women and girls in terms of the risk of lethal victimization,” the report said.
In the past two decades, Türkiye increased prison terms for femicides and domestic violence, two issues that are often tied to a patriarchal mindset prevalent in the country. It also introduced tighter restraining orders for violent spouses and an emergency call app for women at risk of violence. The Interior Ministry announced earlier this month that 276 women were murdered this year so far. Minister Ali Yerlikaya told Parliament last week that they were actively following 764 cases where spouses faced domestic violence risk and authorities issued restraining orders to 162,897 men this year while 44,393 at-risk women were granted security detail.
The Turkish opposition often calls out the government for withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention and blames this move for the prevalence of femicides. “Istanbul Convention keeps you alive” is the motto of the opposition-backed groups that stage protests every Nov. 25 to draw attention to femicides.
The country in 2021 withdrew from the convention on women’s rights, the world’s first binding treaty to prevent and combat violence against women. Opponents of the pact in Türkiye say the convention undermines family unity, encourages divorce, and that its references to equality were being used by the LGBT+ community to gain broader acceptance in society. Türkiye instead introduced tight regulations to prevent domestic violence and femicides.
In his speech on Monday, Erdoğan said debate over the Istanbul Convention was nothing more than “an ideological instrument for certain marginal circles,” citing that those defending the convention were unaware of the dire outlook on the issue in the West. Erdoğan highlighted that the European Parliament only approved a directive to combat domestic violence this year. He noted that Türkiye adopted Law No. 6284 instead and addressed the shortcomings in the Istanbul Convention, adding that half of the countries discussing the convention voiced reservations about it.
“There is no other country in Europe other than Türkiye that implemented a separate law on this issue. Contrary to the claims of the opposition, there is no correlation between the cases of violence and withdrawal from the convention,” he underlined. Erdoğan said the opposition ignored regulations the government adopted. “Violence against women is criminalized under AK Party governments,” he said. He noted the act was treated as a crime separate from other offenses, citing a step to treat crimes against divorcees by their spouses on the same severity with crimes committed against married women by their spouses. He also cited other measures such as electronic tagging for offenders and new shelters built for women who fled domestic violence.
PKK violence
Erdoğan also hit out at the opposition for ignoring the terrorist group PKK’s treatment of women while aligning itself with a party affiliated with the group. “(Republican People’s Party) CHP leader Özgür Özel rushes to the DEM Party but avoids even extending a greeting to the Diyarbakır Mothers,” Erdoğan said. Özel was in the southeast recently in a display of solidarity for mayors of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) who were ousted from their seats on charges of terrorism. The Diyarbakır Mothers Erdoğan referred to is a group comprised of families involved in a sit-in to protest the PKK who brainwashed and kidnapped their children to join the group. They stage their sit-in outside the now-defunct offices of the Peoples’ Democracy Party, a spiritual predecessor of DEM, in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. Erdoğan said the opposition acted hypocritically by ignoring crimes of the PKK ranging from rape of women to abduction of girls while claiming to defend the rights of women.
