13/03/2025 | Writer: Kaos GL
DEM Party Group Deputy Chair Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit brought the rights violations during the 8 March Istanbul Feminist Night March to the parliamentary agenda: ‘Why are the police so comfortable with violence?’
DEM Party Kars MP and Group Deputy Chair Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, in her speech at the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on 11 March, brought the rights violations committed during the 23rd 8 March Istanbul Feminist Night March to the parliamentary agenda.
Koçyiğit stated that there is a systematic violence against women and LGBTI+s during the Feminist Night Marches and said the following:
"Last week on 8 March, we were on the streets with millions of women, shouting our demands for equality, freedom and justice. Unfortunately, for a very long time, the Feminist Night Marches in Istanbul have been banned by the AKP government and there is a constant police violence against women and LGBTI+s. For 23 years, Feminist Night Marches have been organised in Taksim, but we must also state that the intolerance towards this has been increasing day by day and has become intolerant."
Koçyiğit reminded that the Beyoğlu District Governorate had issued a ban decision and that such ban decisions had previously been described as ‘violations’ by the court, and described the violations experienced during and after the march. She pointed out that detained women and LGBTI+ persons were subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
‘Who gave the order to intervene in the protest?’
Koçyiğit said the following:
"In this country, 3 women are murdered every moment, every day. Because the Istanbul Convention was unjustly and unlawfully cancelled in this country. Because the right to alimony is wanted to be opened to discussion. Because our rights to life are ignored. Because there are cases of discrimination, exploitation, harassment and rape against women and LGBTI+‘s in this country.’
Koçyiğit concluded her words as follows:
"Who gave the order to intervene in a peaceful protest that was about to disperse? Who gave the order to detain 112 people and why are the police so comfortable with violence? They are comfortable because they know that they will get away with it. They are comfortable because they know very well that the crimes committed by the police in this country are not prosecuted in the real sense, that they are not punished, and that there is a great policy of impunity. We are here, we will never give up our struggle."
Tags: human rights, women
1720430400.jpg)