Stale, stinking, boring…

For 18 years, the stores of AKP's good news have overflowed; give the good news, put it aside and when the day comes you will propose the same thing again as good news, you’ll wait for the poor joy! I look at the articles I have written since 2012 in this column; I have mentioned a "good news" given to women by the government in almost one out of every four articles. I loathed it, but I did not give up, if they do not mind removing the same rabbit from the hat, I persuaded myself that I should hesitate to write "The mountain gave birth to a mouse, we are tired of these good news, actually the extortion of rights ..."

Yes; I am talking about the Human Rights Action Plan declared by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as "the forefront of the new civil constitution". Many aspects of the plan were handled by the Evrensel writers, and I would like to say a few words about 5 of the articles, especially for women. Erdogan says;

- We increase the effectiveness of psycho-social support and information services for victims of crime, especially children, women, disabled people and the elderly.

- We will continue this struggle with the cooperation of institutions, non-governmental organizations, media and all segments of the society until a day when not even a single woman is a victim of violence.

- We are expanding the special investigation offices established to effectively investigate the crimes of violence against women throughout the country.

- We expand the anticipated aggravating cause of crimes against spouse to include the divorced spouse.

- We organize unilateral stalking acts as a separate crime. We provide lawyers to women who are victims of violence.

Lawyer Gülşah Kaya, while evaluating these items on Ekmekvegul.net, said "The achievements of the previous century should be presented as a stale good news". Another reason why these are stale, rotten and boring is that since 2012 when the Law No.6284 on the Prevention of Violence Against Women was enacted, these items were repeatedly included in the to-do list in the circulars of the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Family, the Prime Ministry and the Presidency. Result? The year 2021 is the same good news again ...

As you can see, all of the articles about women are about the issue of violence. Why is that? Because, regardless of the agenda, violence against women in the country remains at the forefront of it. The measures not taken, concrete steps not taken, even the encouragement of the perpetrators of violence, the deepening of violence in coordination with the worsening of the living and working conditions of women put the problem to number one as a common issue for the wider sections of women. It continues to be one of the main issues that the AKP sees as its base and is criticized by the government in terms of poor conservative women. The fact that the promises made to women in the action plan, which was announced with great admiration and aimed at promising a “hope”, are related to the problem of violence is also an admission in this respect. A confession; because the admission that the articles already included in the Prevention of Violence Law No. 6284 and the Istanbul Convention, which was declared "we will do it, we will" with almost the same sentences, and which the state is obliged to fulfill, have been shelved until this time. On the one hand, I explain them as "action plans" and on the other hand, I do not go into the sincerity of those who bargain for the elimination or even abolition of the Istanbul Convention and the Law No. 6284 on the Prevention of Violence, which is the basis of these articles. Sincerity is not a matter of politics but of bilateral relations. AKP exhibits this contradiction not because it is "sincere", but precisely because it needs this contradiction.

Constitutional debates were held 20 times in 20 years, and during the previous 19 constitutional amendments, 184 separate amendments were made to the Constitution, which consists of 177 articles. Meanwhile, whenever the opportunity is found, the government has also made many legal changes, from the authority to marry muftis, to complicate divorces, to control women's bodies, to cut their equality rights in working life. He also tried to forgive child abuse, reduced his headscarf to primary schools, and paved the way for marriage in high school age. He abolished the women's ministry, cleared all gender equality statements in the legislation. The roadmap set out the proposals of the Divorce Commission, which condemns women to violent marriages. With the arrangements he presented as good news, under the name of family package, he cut down the right of women to work in a secure way. While confining women to flexible working practices with employment packages, they put the burdens in the home on women. It is clear that the action plan and the new constitution announced as good news by those who do not see any problem in violating the most basic constitutional principle by saying "I do not believe in equality, men and women are not equal due to their nature", it is clear that they will make all kinds of rights and freedoms they could not do in the process of the "new constitution". This road leads to eliminating the flaws in the functioning of the oppressive, authoritarian, centralist, misogynist one-man power that gathers the legislature, executive and judiciary in one hand and to lead this power to the construction of a fascist regime.