Top business group chair demands Turkey’s return to Istanbul Convention

Turkey's leading TÜSİAD business association chair Orhan Turan has asked the Parliament to return to the Istanbul Convention and take necessary steps to combat violence against women. In 2021, President Erdoğan signed a presidential decree that pulled the country out of the Istanbul Convention.

Saturday June 17 2023 02:40 pm

Duvar English

The president of the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD), Orhan Turan, on June 16 said that they expect the Parliament to return to the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention.

Speaking at the opening of the TÜSİAD High Advisory Council Meeting, Turan said women still being subject to violence and discriminated against in business and social life “are not worthy of Turkey's second century,” state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

“One of our expectations from the first parliament of our second century is to return to the Istanbul Convention, which we left in 2021. In addition, we have to hold tighter to the Law No. 6284 on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women, which is the strongest legal regulation we have at the national level, and implement it in the most effective way,” Turan added.

2023 remarks the centennial of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed the presidential decree on March 20, 2021, quitting the landmark treaty aimed at protecting women from violence. On July 1, 2021, the country formally left the convention, triggering massive protests and anger from women’s rights groups, who believed the agreement was essential.

Turkey, the first country to ratify the treaty in 2011, suffers from high rates of femicide.

TÜSİAD Chair Turan also said they held a “very useful and constructive meeting” with new Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek.

“As long as the financial sector is healthy and can make its own pricing, the real sector will also be healthy. The policies to be followed should ensure that the real sector can access finance through ordinary means; should pave the way for production and investment,” he added.

He also stated that democratization, rule of law, gender equality and education reform are important topics on their agenda and added that the fight against poverty should be strengthened.