Report prepared to urge Erdoğan to withdraw from Istanbul Convention includes archaic remarks on gender

Duvar English

A report prepared to urge President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, which aims to combat violence against women, includes archaic remarks on gender.

The report, which was prepared by Turkey Thinking Platform and presented to Erdoğan in May, consists of 13 pages and suggests reasons to withdraw from the convention, according to Yetkin Report.

The Islamist platform said in the report that the convention imposes an ideology that results in the loss of gender in the relationships between men and women.

The platform also said that it has been observing that women are getting more masculine and men are becoming more feminine, concluding that the convention's attempt is to eliminate gender.

According to the report, the convention aims to damage the religious, social and cultural codes of the society and weaken the institution of family rather than providing gender equality.

The platform members said that the convention rejects "the opportunity to bring peace to a family that's about to be shattered over domestic violence," adding that it aims to devalue the concepts of religion, culture, honor and tradition.

"The conceptualizations, such as honor killings, aim to discredit the values that hold a society on its feet rather than having good intentions," the report said, while claiming that the convention "doesn't detail what violence is."

"The convention legitimizes all types of sexual deviations via calling them sexual orientation and makes them immune from moral and social penalties," the platform said.

While some of those who prepared the report pen columns in fundamentalist daily Yeni Akit, there are also former ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers.