The criticism of the step was great.
Nevertheless, as announced, Turkey is withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention for the Protection of Women.
Erdogan defends his decision to protest women.
Istanbul - Thousands of people in Turkey have protested against the country's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention for the Protection of Women.
Demonstrators in the center of the metropolis of Istanbul held up posters on Thursday that read: “We are not giving up the Istanbul Convention.
It's not over for us yet. "
They chanted: “We are not silent, we are not afraid, we do not obey.” There were also protests in the coastal metropolis of Izmir, the capital Ankara and other Turkish cities.
The demonstrations took place under massive police presence.
Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the controversial move.
Erdogan announced his withdrawal from the convention by decree in March, which took effect on July 1st.
The reason given by the Turkish leadership was that the agreement had been captured by people "who tried to normalize homosexuality".
The Supreme Administrative Court had rejected a lawsuit against the decree.
Women's rights activist: Victims of violence are afraid
The decision was sharply criticized. The general secretary of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, said: "Turkey has put the clock back on women's rights by ten years and has set a frightening precedent." The head of the Federation of Women's Associations, Canan Güllü, told the dpa, a victim of violence in Turkey were afraid of leaving the convention and wondered "who will protect them".
In Ankara, however, President Erdogan criticized the fact that some “circles” tried to portray the withdrawal from the convention as a “step backwards”. He assured: "Our fight against violence against women did not begin with the Istanbul Convention and does not end with the withdrawal from this convention." Erdogan explained that Turkey already has an effective law against violence, with no differences in religion, To make gender or "race". However, the President omitted discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation from this list.
The Istanbul Convention was drawn up by the Council of Europe in 2011. The signatory states undertake to prevent and combat violence against women and to create a legal framework for this. The aim is to achieve “real equality between women and men” and to abolish discrimination. Erdogan himself had signed the convention in Istanbul - the place of the final agreement - when he was Prime Minister. It was later ratified in Turkey. dpa