From Women to Erdoğan: Don’t Distort It, Our Revolt is Against Police Barricade

* Photograph: Hüseyin Aldemir

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Initiative for the 17th Feminist Night March has responded to the statements of President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who claimed that the women attending the march along the İstiklal Avenue in Taksim "behaved rudely towards the call to prayer by blowing whistles and chanting slogans."

Releasing a written statement, the initiative has said, "We have been on that avenue for the last 17 years, we have been raising our voices at the same hour every year. Don't distort it: Our revolt is against the police barricades, against the ones who want to prevent women's march and March 8."

Here are some of the highlights from the statement:

"The police violence inflicted on tens of thousands of women who attended or attempted to attend the 17th Feminist Night March in Taksim, İstanbul on March 8 International Women's Day cannot be covered with a separating-polarizing language, with fabricated news and hate and by turning the march into a material for election campaign.

"Though they attempt to cloak it in other disguises, its name is misogyny. The march, which has been held by independent feminists for the last 16 years with no problems, attempted to be prevented this year.

"Our trouble is with patriarchy and misogyny"

"While the police were intercepting the women, while they were preventing them from coming together, spraying pepper gas on women and searching them, they did not listen the call to prayer.

"They attempted to squeeze the crowd of women, who came to raise their voices on March 8, between police barricades. We did not fit there.

"The ones who prevented us from marching along the route that we have been following for the last 16 years and held us near the mosque now say that we are against the call to prayer.

"Don't distort it: Our revolt is against the police barricades, against the ones who want to prevent women's march and March 8.

"We have been on that avenue for the last 17 years, we have been raising our voices at the same hour every year.

"We are once again repeating that we insist on policies that do not separate the society, but will build an equal and free life together. The trouble of us, women, is common: Our trouble is with the patriarchy, with misogyny!"

CLICK - Police Attack Feminist Night March With Pepper Gas

What happened?

Referring to women who protested the police with whistles after they did not allow the 17th Feminist Night March, Erdoğan said, "They behaved rudely towards the call to prayer by blowing whistles and chanting slogans."

Speaking in an election rally in Adana on March 10, Eroğan stated,

"We are experiencing an electoral process, where the ones who cannot tolerate the flag ally with the ones who cannot tolerate the call to prayer.

"The other day, a group of women, who came together in Taksim for the so-called women's day under the leadership of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), behaved rudely towards the call the prayer by blowing whistles and chanting slogans.

"This scene in Taksim is, in fact, an indication of how decisive this election will be for our country and nation.

"The ones who do not lay claim to the call to prayer would not lay claim to the country, either. They would also not respect the flag. The ones who do not lay claim to the call to prayer would applaud the enemies when they pound at our door.

"There are some values, which make it impossible for us to respect the ones who attack them. We will struggle against these enemies to call to prayer and flag to the end."

(EKN/SD)