İYİ Party Chair Akşener appeals against withdrawal from İstanbul Convention

* Photo: AA - Archive

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İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener has appealed to the Council of State against Turkey's withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention by the decision of President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Akşener has requested the annulment of the decision.

In her petition to the Council of State, Meral Akşener has requested that the execution of the Presidential decision no. 3718, which has entered into force in the country after being published in the Official Gazette dated March 20, 2021, be suspended primarily and immediately without taking the defense of the administration, which is the defendant in this case.

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), the petition has also requested that the defense period be curtailed, the suspension of execution remain in force after the defense is taken and the related decision be annulled as a result of an examination at a hearing.

Akşener's petition has also referred to the Presidential Decree no. 9, which is cited as the legal ground for the Presidential decision foreseeing Turkey's withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention.

Arguing that the expression of "halting and ending the enforcement of their provisions" in the 3rd article of the Presidential Decree is against the Constitution, Akşener has also demanded that an appeal be lodged at the Constitutional Court for the annulment of the related article.

Reasons

As reported by daily Yeniçağ, İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener has listed a series of reasons for her request for the stay of execution.

Referring to the related legislation, her petition has reminded the high court that "as it is generally accepted, the damage required to give a decision of stay of execution could be of pecuniary or intangible nature," adding that "the only criterium here is that the damage is irrecoverable."

Underlining the importance of decisions of stay of execution as a precautionary measure necessary for a fair and effective trial, Akşener's petition has noted that "in the event that the related action is executed, there will emerge situations hard or impossible to recover."

"Here, in the face of the administration equipped with powerful weapons by the administrative judicial bodies, the interests of the complainant and the citizens of the Republic of Turkey, especially women, with judicial review as their only protection, must be safeguarded."

Accordingly, Akşener has noted that "if the administrative action taken in violation of the Constitution is put into force, the citizens, the rights of whom are protected as per the the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (İstanbul Convention), will obviously suffer damages hard or impossible to recover."

(EKN/SD)