İstanbul Convention rally: 'I was born free and I live freely'

Photos: Evrim Kepenek / bianet

Click to read the article in Turkish

We are at the rally area in Maltepe, İstanbul under a scorching sun following rain.

It's June 19, 2021, Saturday. About 10 days later, the Council of Europe will examine Turkey's decision to pull out of the İstanbul Convention.

CLICK - Mutlu Kaya's silence: Don't fear ever!

CLICK - All photos from the rally

For this very reason, hundreds of women and LGBTI+s from various provinces of Turkey have come together to send a message to both the Council of Europe and the Council of State, to which they have applied for the annulment of the decision.

Entering the rally are from two paths, many women were displaying photographs of Deniz Poyraz, who was killed during an armed assault on the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) office in İzmir on June 17 and holding rainbow flags.

Thousands of women and men police officers around and İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) workers responsible for cleaning in the area grab my attention.

I ask a woman police officer, "What does it mean to be here?" but can't get an answer. A woman IMM worker replies the same question, saying, "We are on duty, so we came here. If only it ends quickly..."

"We will make the convention enforced"

I go into the middle of women's corteges and encounter Süheyla Doğan, a volunteer at the Women's Platform for Equality (EŞİK).

"Women, LGBTI+s, we are not giving up on the İstanbul Convention. We'll make the convention implemented," she says.

While women's corteges are heading towards the area while chanting slogans, the HDP Women's Assembly and the Peace Mothers draw my attention.

"They will drown in the sea"

Displaying Deniz Poyraz's photographs, they also don't stop uttering her name. There is a two-way reaction to the killing of Deniz. Women are both very angry and very sad. You might think of it as if it's in a great spiral of injustice and despair. But you would be wrong. One of those women, Peace Mother Hediye, says:

"They kill us every day. They are killing our people. What did this Deniz do? They were going to commit a massacre. We will seek her rights. We will be after them.

"My reaction is very strong. They murdered a 20-year-old girl. We die as one and are born as a thousand. They can't silence us. They killed Deniz but they can't wipe us out. One day, they will drown in that sea [Deniz means 'sea' in Turkish]. There are not one but a thousand like Deniz in the HDP."

"We don't give up on our rights, lives!"

The messages given for Deniz Poyraz from the beginning of the rally continued until the end in speeches of the artists who took the stage and the slogans of the participants. It would not be wrong to say that the demand for justice for Deniz Poyraz also left a mark on the rally.

As soon as I leave the Peace Mothers, I come across Nazan Moroğlu, the chair of the İstanbul Bar Association Women's Rights Monitoring Center. "We'll do our best for the convention to be implemented word by word," she says.

"No, we aren't defeated. We exist"

Amid women's ululations, I meet for the first time with Şenal Sarıhan, a Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy in the 25th and 26th parliamentary terms who also served as the deputy chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights.

I and my colleague from Gazete Duvar, Aynur Tekin get the same determined response:

"Today, women are flowing into Maltepe like a raging river. Actually, not all women have reached the area yet. The rain, and more importantly, the political obstacles didn't scare them. But this struggle is not the struggle of today.

"Women have been struggling for years. They earned by their own efforts, they built the legislation that would protect their right to life. They wrote it on the streets at first, then they became legislation. They made efforts for that, too.

"Now, women are again standing up against the AKP government's attitude that is trying to push women backward in its one-man policies. They continue to be the most valuable, the biggest and the largest opposition in Turkey. Today, we are together to raise this voice: 'No, we aren't defeated. We made the convention exist and we won't give up on it."

As two women journalists, we are walking around the area to talk to other women and LGBTI+s. First, I come across a student from Boğaziçi University.

"Sometimes, it doesn't make sense to speak," she says while singing along. "I was born free and I live free. It's none of your business. Am I your slave?"

Songs, slogans, rainbow flags, photos of Deniz Poyraz...

As the information that an earthquake has occurred spreads across the area during the rally that is continuing under a scorching sun following rain, women are making jokes that "Women have caused an earthquake."

What is left after the rally that continued for nearly five hours is the message that "Even if you abolish the convention, we'll do everything that we can for the implementation of its articles."

So, let me repeat: "We don't give up on the İstanbul Convention." (EMK/VK)