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Turkey's recent decision to pull out of the Istanbul Convention, which drew international criticism, was asurprising one. The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence was established 2011 to prevent violence against women and prosecute perpetrators.

President Recep Tayyap Erdogan has now justified the move by saying the convention was being used by certain groups to, as he put it, "normalize homosexuality," which the government's directorofcommunications Fahrettin Altunsaid in a statement was incompatible with Turkey's social and family values.

Pesidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun

"Turkey is not the only country with concerns aboutthe Istanbul Convention,"the statement read."Six members of the European Union (Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia) did not ratify the Istanbul Convention. Polandhas taken steps to withdraw from the Convention, citing an attempt by the LGBT community to impose their ideas about gender on the entire society."

US President Joe Biden rebuked Turkey for reneging on the agreement

The Turkish leader signed the bill to leave the convention on March 20, drawing international ire. Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, called the move a dangerous signal to the rest of the world, while EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the convention provided women with important legal protections against violence. US President Joe Biden meanwhile said he was "deeply disappointed" by the decision.

Women's groups in Turkey are equally disappointed, calling the decision both illegal and invalid. Canan Gll, the President of the Federation of Women's Associations, told DW that the decision strips women of their right to live in a violence-free environment. "Women are being treated like a sack of garbage thrown out on the street and everyone who walks by can give it a kick. And that kick is also a bullet fired from a gun. We women will never forget this."

President of the Federation of Women's Associations, Canan Gll is outraged by the move

Turkish lawyers, meanwhile, say it's very difficult to just pull out of an international accord and describe President Erdogan's unilateral move as extremely unusual. Serap Yazici, an expert on constitutional law, points out that withdrawal from such agreements must follow specific rules: Turkey's parliament must first pass a law announcing Ankara's exit from the convention before President Erdogan can act on the law.

Women, she said, should fight the president's move in court. "I invite all women to launch invalidity proceedings to stop this, she said.

Her appeal was heard. An organization fighting for the rights of women and children in Turkey has already filed a suit against the government. The group is arguing that the president does not have the power to invalidate an international agreement that was passed by parliament, simply by decree.

Many in Turkey have little sympathy with President Erdogan's decision to leave the convention, especially when considering the country's high femicide rates. There is widespread criticism that too little is done to protect women in Turkey from violence.

Thanks to social media and women's groups, the pressure is now being turned up on the government, which together with law enforcement authorities refuses to acknowledge that a problem even exists - despite that fact that 300 women were killed in Turkey last year alone, according to the organization "We will stop the murder of women."An additional 171 deaths last year were flagged by the authorities as "suspicious."Many of those deaths were registered as suspected suicides.

Turkey's exit from the Istanbul Convention is a significant step backwards. Many Turkish women saw the accord as their last hope, with the international community agreeing to establish the conditions necessary to protect women from violence. Turkey ratified the pact in 2014 and by doing so, legalized such protections. But in practice, critics say, these protections are rarely enforced. Even before the president decided to leave the pact, the Istanbul Convention was failing to prevent violence against women.

Originally posted here:
Bizarre reasoning aside, Erdogans exit from Istanbul Convention is unconstitutional - DW (English)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come under criticism for holding his partys congress inside a packed sports complex amid a new surge of COVID-19 cases

ByThe Associated Press

March 24, 2021, 4:32 PM

2 min read

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came under criticism Wednesday for holding his partys congress inside a packed sports complex amid a new surge of COVID-19 cases.

Thousands of ruling party supporters filled the stands of the 10,400-capacity complex in Ankara despite the Turkish governments social distancing rules. Videos posted on social media purported to show busloads of ruling party supporters traveling to the capital to attend the congress, many without masks. Wearing masks in public spaces is mandatory in Turkey.

Erdogan spoke for nearly two hours at the event, presenting his vision for when the country marks the centenary of the Turkish Republic in 2023, when the country is also scheduled to hold presidential and parliamentary elections. He said he cut remarks short in order not to expose congress participants to the virus.

Murat Emir, a physician and lawmaker from Turkeys main opposition party, described the scenes from the party congress as shameful, writing on Twitter that the event showed disregard for the health workers who work day and night in the battle against the pandemic.

Former Ankara mayor Melih Gokcek, a member of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, maintained that delegates were tested for the coronavirus before attending the congress.

Erdogan has been criticized for holding similarly crowded local party congresses across the country in past weeks despite the pandemic. During one such event, he boasted about the size of the crowd.

Turkey reported close to 30,000 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, weeks after the government eased restrictions in dozens of provinces under a so-called controlled normalization program. The country also reported 146 deaths in the past 24 hours.

On March 1, the government divided Turkeys provinces into four risk categories and allowed restaurants and cafes to reopen in low, medium and high-risk areas. Weekend lockdowns were also eased in those provinces, although nighttime curfews introduced in late November remain in place across Turkey.

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Erdogan under fire for packed congress despite virus surge ...

Recent interest-rate shifts in the U.S. and other developed economies were bound to have consequences for emerging markets, and it looks like Turkey is first in the dock. The lira plunged about 14% versus the dollar Monday in an incipient crisis that is mostly but not entirely the fault of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This weeks lira ruction was caused by Mr. Erdogans sacking on Saturday of the head of the central bank. The main sin of the deposed monetary maestro, Naci Agbal, was to wage an aggressive battle against inflation. He had raised the policy rate to 19% from 10.25% in an attempt to stabilize consumer prices that rose 15.6% year-on-year in February. Mr. Erdogan prefers to goose economic growth as much as possible no matter the inflationary consequences, and he seems to believe that higher interest rates cause higher prices.

Mr. Erdogans bad economic management isnt news. Turkey on his watch has suffered repeated crises of various sorts, most recently with another inflation spike that became a currency crash in 2018. But two differences are notable this time.

One is that investors had convinced themselves Mr. Erdogan had finally seen the light on economic policy, and now claim to be surprised that he hasnt. Mr. Agbals appointment in November, along with the resignation of Mr. Erdogans son-in-law who had been finance minister, was heralded as a sign that competent people would be in charge of macroeconomic policy. Yet Mr. Erdogan is Turkeys biggest economic problem and guess what, folks: Theres still gambling at Ricks.

The other new factor is the global economic environment, which is much less hospitable than during the last Turkish crisis two years ago. The pandemic is straining economies everywhere, and Turkey has been hit especially hard by the collapse of travel due to its reliance on tourism. With the summer vacation season in doubt, especially for Turkeys many European visitors, its not clear how the country can start earning its way out of the financial hole.

Read more:
Erdogan Tanks the Turkish Lira - The Wall Street Journal

The leaders of the European Union and Turkey held talks by videoconferenceon Friday, ahead of next week's EU summit that will address the bloc's relations with Ankara.

"We underlined the importance of sustained de-escalation and of further strengthening confidence-building to allow for a more positive EU-Turkey agenda," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement after the discussion.

"The presidents also exchanged views on the situation of Syrian refugees hosted in Turkeyas well as the wider regional situation including Libya and Syria," the EU statement added.

The video call between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel was arranged to try to improve ties between Brussels and Ankara that had become fraught in recent years.

The issuesinclude: Erdogan's power grab and the rollback of democracy, Turkey's involvement in conflicts in Libya, Syria and indirectlyNagorno-Karabakh, a spat over energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, and accusations that Ankara has used Syrian refugees staying in the country as a political pawn to win EU concessions.

EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss a joint report on relations with Turkey on Monday ahead of thesummit ofEU heads of state and government later in the week.

Leaders are expected to discuss updating a 2016 migrant deal under which Turkey has curbed entries into Europe in exchange forfinancial support from Brussels.

Erdogan told the video call that Turkey expects next week's discussions to "pave the way for concrete work," on rebuilding ties, his office said.

The Turkish president said he hopes the EU report will reflect "objective and constructive views" on how Turkey-EU relations can move forward.

Erdogan called on Brussels not to allow Greece and Greek Cypriots to gang up on Turkey, and instead urged increased dialogue to resolve the eastern Mediterranean dispute.

During Friday's talks, the three leaders also discussed the possibility of a visit to Turkey soon, according to an EU statement.

Turkey and Greece have been at odds overmaritime boundaries and natural gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, which saw Brussels threaten Ankara with sanctions, although these have since been put on hold.

Turkey had sent navy warships to protect its research vessels operating in the disputed waters, but has since softened its stance.

The EU is also closely following UN efforts to restart peace talks over Cyprus in which Turkey is a key player.

mm/rs (AFP, dpa)

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EU chiefs urge Turkey's Erdogan to ease strained ties with bloc - DW (English)

As the Syrian crisis enters its 11th year this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has appealed for Western support in Syria in an apparent hope to advance plans for a safe zone along the Turkish border and hamper Russia in Idlib, if not revive his regime-change ambitions.

In a March 15 article for Bloomberg, Erdogan argues that restoring peace in Syria depends on strong Western support for Turkey and that the most sensible option for Western leaders is to throw their weight behind Turkey and become part of the solution in Syria, at minimum cost and with maximum impact.

Erdogans emphasis on minimum cost has unpleasant political connotations in Turkey, dating back to the early years of the Cold War, when American leaders would often advocate military partnership with Turkey as a cheap way of advancing US security interests. In remarks to Congress in 1953, for instance, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles argued that Turkish soldiers get 23 cents a month, while US soldiers would cost you 10 times as much. Such comparisons left lasting marks in Turkeys political lexicon and the great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, an avowed socialist, even penned a poem titled The 23-cent soldier. For many, military collaboration with the United States remains akin to being Americas cheapest soldiers.

In his article, Erdogan describes Idlib as the oppositions final stronghold, never mind that the province is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which Ankara itself designates as a terrorist group, and other al-Qaeda-inspired factions. He claims Turkey saved millions of lives in Idlib a year ago when it struck regime positions to stop attacks on the region. Yet Turkeys intervention in Idlib in February 2020, which claimed the lives of dozens of its soldiers, failed to stop regime forces from taking control of the key M5 highway and besieging Turkish military outposts in the region. Moreover, the population in the area was hardly in the millions as locals had already fled their homes in droves. More crucially, the groups Erdogan calls the opposition are the same groups he pledged to eliminate in two deals with Russia in September 2018 and March 2020.

Erdogan frames the Syrian conflict as the terrible outcomes, including terrorism and irregular migration, of the regimes crackdown on popular demands for freedom and democracy, obscuring Ankaras role in militarizing the conflict through weapons transfers to the rebels with CIA help in the early years of the conflict and loose border control that allowed foreign jihadis to cross to Syria. While stressing the need to preserve Syrias unity, Erdogan seems to insist on a regime change, writing, The Turkish people believe that creating a political system, capable of representing all Syrians, is key to restoring peace and stability. We reject any plan that does not address the Syrian peoples demand for human dignity.

Erdogan boasts that Turkey was the first country to deploy combat troops against terrorist groups in Syria, even though he had gloated at the Islamic States (IS) onslaught on Kurdish areas along the border in 2014. US raids against IS began in September that year, while Turkey launched its first military campaign, Operation Euphrates Shield, in 2016 to stop the advances of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) after their ouster of IS from northern Aleppo. The operation, which also was aimed against IS, was certainly instrumental also in dispelling criticism that Turkey was supporting the militant group.

The areas that Turkey and its Syrian rebels allies have come to control through Operation Euphrates Shield and two ensuing operations, Olive Branch and Peace Spring, have seen clashes between Turkish-backed groups, moves to alter demographics at the expense of the Kurds and myriad violations such as looting, extortion and the destruction of religious and historical sites. Erdogan, however, paints a rosy picture, writing, The safe zones, which Turkey created in cooperation with its local partners have become islands of peace and stability, as well asself-sustaining ecosystems.He refers also to a large-scale housing construction plan in northern Syria to settle up to 2 million refugees, which he had raised at the UN in 2019. According to Erdogan, Turkeys actions have sheltered Europe from irregular migration and terrorism, and secured NATOs southeastern border.

Erdogans offer to the West is not without conditions. Ankara, he writes, expects the West to adopt a clear positionagainst the YPG and support the legitimate Syrian opposition. He warns that failure to share Turkeys burden may result in fresh refugee waves to Europe. The warning evokes the crisis in February 2020, when Erdogan encouraged refugees in Turkey to cross to Europe via Greece. He now wants the West to invest in the safe zones in Syria and unequivocally endorse this peace project.

Finally, Erdogan appeals to the Joe Biden administration to stay true to its campaign pledges and work with us to end the tragedy in Syria and to defend democracy.

Less than two years ago, Erdogan was hailing the Astana process between Turkey, Russia and Iran as the sole initiative capable of producing effective solutions in Syria. And earlier this month, Turkey launched a new peace track with Russia and Qatar. Yet Erdogans Bloomberg article shows he still entertains the ambitions he had before his rapprochement with Moscow in 2016.

Despite his collaboration with Moscow, Erdogan has played a double game, waging military operations against the Kurds on the one hand while continuing to shield rebel forces on the other. By setting up more than 70 military outposts in southern Idlib over the past year, Turkey has effectively erected a barrier to the Syrian army. Erdogans offer to the West is a reminder of the value of Turkeys posture in Syria and a message to Biden who still keeps him waiting for a phone call on how the two could reconcile.

Yet the offer, in its current form, could hardly resonate with its addressees, who have harshly criticized Turkeys actions in Syria. Just last week, a European Parliament resolution denounced Turkeys illegal invasion in Syria and praised the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces as an ally against IS.

Arab states, which have collaborated with the West in Syria, are unlikely to be impressed either, as they have come to see Turkeys influence expansion as a threat. Some are already pressing for Syrias return to the Arab League to counter Turkish and Iranian influence in the region.

Erdogans condition to the West to renounce the YPG is, in fact, self-destructive to his offer. Biden has displayed little flexibility on the issue and even the Donald Trump administration, which was ready to abandon the Kurds in 2019, had to step back under pressure from Congress.

More importantly, Erdogans offer bumps into Russia, which remains a steadfast ally of Bashar al-Assads government. And any move to create a safe zone along Turkeys border depends on Russias approval. As if responding to Erdogans intended pivot to the West, the Russians have recently hit oil facilities used by Turkish-backed rebel forces.

Commenting on Erdogans article, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov asserted ongoing disagreements with Turkey in Syria. The situation in the areas of [Turkish-Russian] interaction remains quite difficult. Terrorist elements remain there, hindering normalization. Nevertheless, interaction continues, he said.

Erdogans appeal to the West might stem from a sense of urgency. By failing to fulfill his commitments in Idlib, he has been paving the way for a fresh Syrian-Russian thrust on the region. An escalation in the next couple of months would not come as a surprise. Erdogan might be trying to deter such a prospect, while offering Biden a ground for score-settling with Russia.

See more here:
What lies behind Erdogans Syria offer to the West? - Al-Monitor