AKP refutes reports of accepting New Welfare Party’s demand for annulment of law protecting women

Duvar English

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has refuted the reports that it accepted Islamist New Welfare Party’s demand that the Law No. 6284 to Protect Family and Prevent Violence Against Women be abolished.

AKP deputy chair Binali Yıldırım said that during the AKP’s visit to New Welfare Party on March 10, this issue never came up. Branding the visit as a mere “courtesy,” Yıldırım said on March 13, “We have never spoken these matters.”

Separately, Family Minister Derya Yanık said that the Law No. 6284 carries utmost importance and will continue to exist.

“The existence of Law No. 6284 is extremely important. We cannot accept that its existence be even opened to discussion. The Law No. 6284 is one of the most important legal regulations that we (AKP) undertook in the struggle against violence towards women. Since the law’s acceptance, we have been diligently continuing to improve the implementation,” Yanık tweeted on March 13.

The two AKP officials’ remarks came after New Welfare Party deputy chair Doğan Aydal said that they had on March 10 submitted a list of conditions to the AKP for an alliance to exist between the two parties. In remarks to broadcaster Habertürk on March 12, Aydal said that the AKP had approved the conditions and told them “There is no problem” with regards to the list.

The law to protect family and prevent violence against women has been accepted in Turkey on March 8, 2012. The purpose of this law is to protect the women, the children, the family members and the victims of stalking, who have been subject to the violence or at the risk of violence.

Islamists have been targeting the law, saying that it is being used by women to “slander men” and “push away their husbands from home.”