‘Male violence’ protest against Soylu: ‘106 women killed in four months’

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The members of the Parliamentary Commission on Equality of Opportunity Between Women and Men from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) protested Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, who made a presentation about violence against women at the commission yesterday (May 27).

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Taking the floor at the meeting, HDP Ankara MP Filiz Kerestecioğlu addressed Interior Minister Soylu, who made a presentation for two hours at the meeting, and said that "he had made two and a half hours of the whole country go to waste" at a live television program that he had attended to respond to the allegations of mafia boss Sedat Peker about him.

Warned by the Commission Chair that "she was diverging from the commission's agenda", Kerestecioğlu said, "You can make your warnings, I make my criticisms. You cannot hinder it, this is called pressure."

'We have 21 questions'

Speaking further, Kerestecioğlu underlined that "they would not let the sexist language of politics created by the government be legitimized at the commission for struggling against violence against women."

Addressing Minister Süleyman Soylu, she said, "We have 21 questions here, we prepared them. We submitted them to the commission chair, who will give you the questions. As you do not like answering questions much, we especially submitted them in written form."

Referring to the cardboards and placards shown by Soylu on previous occasions, she said, "We have our cardboard as well. In the first four months of 2021, 106 women were massacred. We leave their names here. You sometimes do not remember women's names, either."

'You are not convincing'

"You can talk about the KADES all you want, but the KADES did not save women, either," stated Kerestecioğlu further, referring to the Interior Ministry's Women's Emergency Support (KADES) application.

Kerestecioğlu raised concerns that Interior Minister Soylu has also supported the security officers' statements about "declining violence" following Turkey's withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention.

She said, "We want a clean society; we want clean politics and clean judiciary. We know that the people of this country have no more patience. We know that women will continue being killed as long as the dirty and sexist structure of male-dominant politics remains in place."

Referring to her feminist struggle for 40 years and what she has witnessed over the years, Kerestecioğlu said, "Speaking about what you have done, you 'conceitedly' speak as tough you had 'yourself' done it all. But it is not true. There is a very serious struggle behind all these."

Reminding the Minister of the Law no. 6284 on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women, HDP's Kerestecioğlu underlined that there was the Law no. 4320 before the Law no. 6284 and other laws before these two laws. "We come from such a period that while the husband's permission was required for a woman to work, we have managed to improve them all. There are women in Turkey and we do not accept this attitude of yours. We also think that you are not convincing," she indicated further.

Kerestecioğlu also talked about Soylu's statement that "there is no torture or unsolved murders in Turkey". She ended her speech by a recent social media post of Türkan Elçi, the wife of late Diyarbakır Bar Chair lawyer Tahir Elçi, who was killed in Diyarbakır: "Petrified in the face of this easy manner, one just wants to look at the sky, because the face of the earth is so dirty."

Following Kerestecioğlu's speech, HDP MPs left the placards with the names of 106 women who lost their lives in the first four months of 2021 on the tables and left the commission hall in protest. (EMK/SD)