Nişmiye Güler

 

ISTANBUL - Reacting to the President and Chair of the AKP targeting of the Istanbul Convention and women, representatives of women’s organizations said, ‘’We are not anyone’s elder sisters and women. We will give our answer on the street’’.

 

In a statement after the cabinet meeting on Monday, President and Chair of the AKP Tayyip Erdoğan said, ‘’Whoever utters a sentence that starting with the ‘Istanbul Convention’ in this country, our women must show reaction first and most to them for taking advantage from their own name for the sake of their deviant ideological agenda’’. With this expressions, he again targeted the Istanbul Convention and women’s organizations.

 

The fact that the rulers of the ruling wing target women every time was met with a reaction, while the representatives of the women’s organization reacted to the statement that targeted women against each other.

 

‘His anger is because we did’t say it’s over’

 

Dilek Başalan, Chairperson of the Women’s Time Association, noted that the president’s words are not new, and that the AKP and its partner MHP constantly attack women. She said, ‘’While there is a discussion about the war, it is not far away that the subject comes to women. War and women are always side by side in their eyes’’. Dilek reminded that they faced with the male state violence when they took to the streets after the decision to withdraw from the convention.

 

‘Women don’t say it’s over’

 

Emphasizing that they will not give up on the Istanbul Convention, Dilek said, ‘’We said on July 1, ‘It is not over, it will not be over until we say it’s over’. There was a great revolt that day. Despite the psychology of fear they were trying to spread, women were still on the street. Women are right in their anger, they do not give up, they do not say it’s over. The important thing is what we will do. We will say with our resistance, with our organising and with all our strength, that we do not give up on the Istanbul Convention or our achievements’’.

 

‘We are not anyone’s elder sisters and women’

 

Dilek reacted to the president’s expression of ‘’our women and our elder sisters’’ with the following words, ‘’We are not anyone’s women. This possessive language has persisted for years. And there is a mentality that kills everything. They say ‘Our animals, our children, our women, our nature’. There is a mentality that kills and murders all these beauties. We are not anyone’s elder sisters and women’’.

 

‘We always gave the necessary answer on the street’

 

Sinem Tuğcu from the Women Are Strong Together also pointed out that the AKP made women ‘’acceptable’’ and objectified, and said, ‘’We women do not want to hear from him what kind of response we will give to his attitude. We have a mind and a will. We gave him the most necessary answers, generally on the street. We will continue to do so. First of all, we will put a barrier together with women by standing against him, the male state, the male judiciary, the laws he has passed and tried to enact, and by standing against his misogynist policies. We will say at the highest level that we do not accept. Because we know that this government, which arrests women and paves the way for harassment and rape, does not stand by us, we are against it. With his one expression, we will not change our stance’’.

 

‘We do not belong to anyone’

 

Stating that the government does not care about protecting women, Sinem said, ‘’We know very well that the male state system does not protect us. We are getting stronger together with women and struggle. The president said ‘our women’, but we are not plate, cup or bag. We do not belong to anyone. He can threat and target as much as he wants. We know that we are right and we will continue to give the necessary response’’.

 

‘A statement that targets those who defend the convention’

 

Hilal Gencay from the Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR) association also stated that the attacks against the Istanbul Convention and those who defend it are increasing. Underlining that the President and Chair of the AKP’s words openly threat women, Hilal said, ‘’A statement that targets those who defend the convention and portrays them as ‘people with deviant ideological agendas’. It is very worrisome for us. It is also sad and worrisome that these things are being said from the mouth of a president. This is not the president’s duties in the constitution. It is not at all to target a group’’.

 

‘We will not stop doing what we know is right’

 

Hilal stated that they will continue to say, ‘’The Istanbul Convention is ours’’. She said, ‘’With this statement, we will not stop doing what we know is right, even if the president threats us or shows us a target’’.