The State Council (tr. Danıştay) in Ankara on Tuesday rejected the complaint against the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on the Protection of Women against Violence. After the cancellation of the convention was decided by Tayyip Erdogan's presidential decree in March 2021, women's organisations, political parties and civil society organisations filed a lawsuit. According to the ruling of the Council of State, the withdrawal is constitutional. The case will now be heard at the next higher instance. As a last step in Turkey, an appeal to the Constitutional Court is possible. If the Turkish judicial system is exhausted, legal action can also be taken before the European Court of Human Rights.

There is great indignation in Turkey over the verdict of the Council of State. In the Istanbul district of Kadiköy, the women's association "We Will Stop Femicides" and the women's councils protested shortly after the verdict was announced. "We do not recognise the lawless verdict and do not give up the Istanbul Convention" was written on a banner that the activists unfurled on the ferry pier in Kadiköy.

The general secretary of the Women's Association, Fidan Ataselim, said at the rally that the ruling forces women to continue their resistance: "We would have liked it not to be like this and for the Council of State to make a ruling in accordance with the law, stating that the state president is not above the constitution. We would have liked a finding that a single person, a single man, cannot do everything he pleases. That did not happen because a political decision was taken." Ataselim, however, pointed out that the ruling was not unanimous and that alone showed the questionable nature of the decision.

There is no reason for hopelessness, Ataselim continued: "We will win with our own strength and our equal and free struggle, which is becoming increasingly social."