Hiding behind the Family: Violation of Gender Rights in Turkey

In 2021 President Erdogan issued a decree annulling Turkey’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention-a legally binding Council of Europe treaty-, discourse of the ruling party has been built upon the protection of traditional family structure and values. As his legitimacy has recently become more vulnerable mostly due to the economic hardship Turkey is going through, he has been leaning more on populism by employing religious rhetoric. In this rhetoric, the family unit is portrayed sacred and a haven through which women are protected. Opponents of the convention maintain that it would encourage divorce, and this would shatter the building block of the society, i.e., the family. Annulling the convention in the name of defending women’s rights is as problematic as equating it with being anti-LGBT. The convention is shown as it attempts to normalize homosexuality and may lead to gay marriage and thus, to be incompatible with traditional values of Turkish society. As they prioritize family, their attempts target not only women’s rights, but also those who are stigmatized as “abnormal”. While the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party of President Erdogan has increasingly voiced anti-LGBT sentiments, thousands gathered in Istanbul on 17 September 2023, to support the government in its policies that were put into force for protecting the traditional family system. Before this anti-LGBT march, an advertisement was shown on television after gaining the approval of the country’s broadcasting council, which deemed it a "public interest". The Big Family Gathering, as they named the march, which was attended by about 150 conservative nongovernmental organizations across Turkey, called on the government to penalize all “perverse” movements that undermine the family values of Turkish society. Apart from being openly supported by the state, another interesting point about this gathering was the attitude taken by the main opposition parties of the country. Even though some raised their voices against this homophobic gathering, many prominent politicians of the opposition remained silent.