MHP leader Bahçeli defends Erdoğan's move to ditch İstanbul Convention

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Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli has announced support for Turkey's withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention, a Council of Europe treaty on combating and preventing violence against women.

"The İstanbul Convention has failed to meet expectations and has not been a remedy for hearts," he told his party's parliamentary group today (March 30). "Moreover, the mentioned convention's provisions regarding gender identity have threatened the family, spiritual values, social order and balance."

President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 20 issued a decree pulling Turkey out of the convention. The move has attracted criticism and protests from women's rights groups and opposition parties.

The AKP and the MHP have forged an alliance since the 2017 referendum for the switch to a presidential system.

"As signing the convention and becoming a party to it, withdrawing from it is also a right and a legal act belonging to the signatory country," Bahçeli further said.

He added that women's rights were not completely dependent on the convention and the opposition was being "provocative" and "immoral" by saying that the withdrawal from it would increase violence against women. (DŞ/VK)