* Photo: Dilek Şen - bianet
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Turkey has withdrawn from the İstanbul Convention by a Presidential decision dated March 19, 2021, which has been met with harsh criticisms and objections in both Turkey and around the world.
Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu, attending the opening ceremony of a project aimed at increasing police forces' capacity to detect forgery of travel documents and risk analysis, responded to these criticisms and objections. Addressing the crowd, Minister Soylu said:
"We put our signature under whatever international convention we want and we withdraw from whatever convention we want. Those who cannot differentiate between a Presidential decision and a Presidential decree unfortunately try to make evaluations about this issue as they like. They are trying to turn everything into political exploitation."
In an article penned for bianet Turkish, Prof. Kemal Gözler shared the following information about Presidential decrees and decisions in the context of Turkey's withdrawal from international conventions: "As the approval of international conventions is ratified by law and falls within the scope of legislative authority, it shall not be regulated by a Presidential decree. "Because even in the first sentence of Article 104/17 of the Constitution, which gives the President the authority to issue Presidential decrees, says, 'The President of the Republic may issue presidential decrees on the matters regarding executive power.' "The President does not have the authority to issue a Presidential decree on the matters regarding legislative power. Therefore, the Presidential Decree no. 9's articles regarding the ratification and termination of international conventions pose a lack of jurisdiction in terms of ratione materiae. "For this reason, the Presidential Decision no. 3718 on the Termination of İstanbul Convention on the Part of the Republic of Turkey is against the law as its ground, the Presidential Decree no. 9, is against the law." |
What happened?
Turkey has withdrawn from the İstanbul Convention with a Presidential decision published in the Official Gazette on March 20, 2021.
The decision in question said that "the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, which was signed by Turkey on May 11, 2011 and approved with the Cabinet Decree no. 2012/2816 on February 10, 2012, shall be terminated on the part of Turkey as per the Article 3 of the Presidential Decree no. 9."
Following this Presidential decision published at midnight, several social media users, women's rights defenders, lawyers and politicians, denounced the decision, recalling that the convention was unanimously approved at the Parliament and stressing that it is not possible for Turkey to withdraw from an international convention with a Presidential decision. (DŞ/SD)
