Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Van Provincial co-chair Gülderen Varlı said that after Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, women lost an important mechanism of defense and this meant that impunity increased. She added that it was the AKP that actually encouraged men as femicides would go unpunished.

After the AKP government withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, millions of women were more at risk of being targeted by men.

Every day women are murdered by men in Turkey. While violence against women has increased by 1400 percent in the last 10 years in the cities of Turkey and Northern Kurdistan, 3,776 women were murdered by men from 2008 to November 2021.

Since the AKP government announced, on 20 March 2021, that it would withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, 200 women have been murdered. The total number of women murdered since the beginning of 2021 is 271.

Femicides are promoted

DBP Van Provincial co-chair Gülderen said that the power and masculine mentality that has ignored women's bodies and labor for centuries, narrowing their living spaces, is responsible for the killing and suicide of many women.

Stating that the AKP's policies, laws that do not protect women, and other discourses developed through the media, caused women to be killed and committing suicide, Varlı said: "After Turkey withdrew the Istanbul Convention, men felt they could kill women more easily. It is this government’s laws that give courage to these murderers. Those who murder women know that the law will protect them. Many women are murdered every day in Turkey, and when we look at the punishments given to the killers, we understand why femicides are increasing. The one who kills a woman enters through one door and exits through the other. Killers are not given adequate punishment for the murders and thus other are actually encouraged to kill.”

There is an anti-women attitude in the AKP

Noting that the increase in killings of women stems from the AKP's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention and its women's policy, Varlı said: "When we look at the AKP's discourses and actions, we see that it excludes women. It is obvious who caused these massacres. Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, which is perhaps the only convention protecting women, by Presidential decree. As DBP, we are fighting for women's right to life in all areas against sexist and masculine policies. With the principle of equal representation, we work in all neighbourhoods, streets or houses. Our struggle will continue.”