Women of Ayvalık: Announce that violence is a crime!

* Photos: Gönül İlhan

Click to read the article in Turkish

Yesterday was November 25 International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. To mark this day, women met in Cumhuriyet Square in Ayvalık district in Turkey's western province of Balıkesir and said:

"İstanbul Convention saves lives", "Protect women, not the family", "We don't hush, we don't fear, we don't obey", "Implement the law, prevent feminicides" and "Long live the solidarity of women."

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'Male violence increasing incrementally'

On behalf of the women, Saniye Özkaya and Nebahat Gülhan read out the press statement and gave the message that "women would not give up on neither their rights nor their lives." Women briefly said:

"On November 25, 1960, in Dominican Republic, they first raped the Mirabel Sisters, then beat and brutally killed them. The men of the fascist dictator killed three young women because they demanded their rights. They destroyed the bodies of Mirabel Sisters, but they could not destroy their struggle. Today, millions of women from all around the world have been crying out loud: We will give up on neither our rights nor our lives!

"Dear fellow women, male violence has been increasing incrementally. Women are being massacred. This year, 269 women have been killed by men, 152 women suspiciously lost their lives.

"These are the numbers registered in the state records. What about the ones that the state turns a blind eye to? But we will not stay silent. We will be an eye, an ear, a voice for the women who died and keep crying out loud.

'Don't be a mere onlooker, fulfill your duty'

"In our country, where feminicides have reached the dimension of a gendercide, 2021 budget talks are going on, but there is no government policy to 'prevent violence against women' or a budget allocated for this. We call on the authorities one more time: Systematic violence against women is torment and torture. Don't be a mere onlooker, fulfil your duty!

"We, women, are subjected to violence, abused, raped and killed every day. Those who create the violence, who rape and kill women are released or they are almost encouraged by sentence reductions.

"Male-dominant mentality does not judge the ones who kill, but the lifestyles of women, it encourages men. These discriminatory policies foster violence and men keep on killing. As laws are not enforced, women abstain from going to police, gendarmerie, prosecutor. They are afraid of standing before the judge and being publicly exposed by the male-dominant system.

"Violence has reached a terrifying dimension in Ayvalık, it has come knocking at our door, so to speak. In the last 9 months, 258 women, people with disabilities, elderly and children have been subjected to violence.

"According to the data of the Family and Social Policies District Directorate of the Ayvalık Sub-Governor's Office, only 3 percent of the ones subjected to violence applied to law enforcement agencies. This violence is the one registered by the state. But, what about unregistered incidents?

12 demands

"We do not want a new law. We want İstanbul Convention, the guarantee of women's and children's safety of life, and Law no. 6284 on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women to be implemented.

"We are calling on all authorities to follow the 12 steps set by the Council of Europe for the implementation of the İstanbul Convention, the most comprehensive legal basis about this issue, and adapted for Turkey by us as the Women's Platform for Equality (EŞİK)."

Women listed their 12 demands as follows:

1. Condemn discrimination and violence, announce that violence is a crime

2. Take precautions to prevent violence

3. Develop mechanisms of support against violence

4. Protect the ones at risk

5. Enforce the laws

6. Increase the effectiveness of the police, prosecution services and judiciary

7. Support and protect the victims in legal proceedings

8. Design comprehensive and coordinated policies

9. Be attentive to the issue of refugees

10. Meet the special needs of children

11. Support NGOs

12. Collect data on violence, support studies

(Gİ/EMK/SD)