Statement from 82 women’s organizations in Turkey: “We stand with immigrants”

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"Women's solidarity is beyond borders," said women's groups amid a rising anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey.

Eighty-two women's organizations and more than 700 women issued a written statement addressing their concerns about the increasing racism against refugees in Turkey.

"We are against racism, discrimination, and hatred against immigrants, we stand with immigrants," said women.

For the last couple of weeks, there has been an ongoing debate in Turkey, especially on social media about the women allegedly being sexually harassed by the refugees in Turkey.

Most of the videos shared on social media show young refugee men walking in the streets with messages saying as if they are posing threats to women in Turkey.

Although there is no verified data or information that reveals that perpetrators of sexual harassment against women are mostly immigrant men in Turkey, many people think that is true.

This discourse also has been used a lot by some of the political party leaders as grounds for sending refugees back to their countries, which is among the heated topics in Turkey.

Women opposing the use of "women's safety" as a discourse to increase hatred against migrants in Turkey said:
"We stand with immigrants, not racism, discrimination, hostility to immigrants or hatred."

In their statement, women noted that the videos shared on social media are not verified, and immigrants are used as a tool for political debates in Turkey.

"As this hatred against immigrants increases, the real responsible for the current situation in Turkey never becomes visible."

"Immigration is a human right. While the real culprits of war, destruction, all the massacres carried out for the sake of imperialist dreams, male violence, unemployment, and economic crisis are hidden, the immigrants who survived these policies cannot be targeted as enemies." (RT/TB)