Human Rights Association (IHD) co-chair Eren Keskin was invited to a panel entitled, “Women’s place in society” held in Batman. The panel was organised by the Batman Bar Association and the Batman office of the IHD with the mottoes, ”We are not going to give up on the Istanbul Convention” and “Jin jiyan e, jiyan jin e” (Kurdish for ‘Woman is Life, Life is Woman’).
The opening speech was made by lawyer Gülbahar Kaya, who also moderated the panel. She introduced Eren Keskin, who started by explaining the importance of the Istanbul Convention, from which Turkey withdrew last year, with the signature of President Erdoğan.
Keskin quoted Erdoğan’s words on the convention: “Our women don’t need the convention, our women are holy”. Her response to this was, “We women don’t need to be holy, we want to be equal”.
Aysel Tuğluk
Eren Keskin continued her speech by telling something of the years of fighting for and with Aysel Tuğluk. The Kurdish politician and former co-Chair of the HDP has been in prison all this time, living under extreme isolation, despite being known to be extremely ill suffering from numerous serious diseases including dementia.
According to Eren Keskin, Aysel Tuğluk was again maltreated during a check-up at the Forensic Medicine Institute, when she couldn’t remember who the president of Turkey was.
Keskin explained what happened: “Aysel Tuğluk was asked who the president of Turkey was and she was yelled at when she couldn’t remember. This is torture. I can not recall a moment where the legal system was subjected to so much disrespect. We are having to struggle to prove she is ill. This is all so traumatic.”
