Mayor İmamoğlu: We will adhere to İstanbul Convention

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"I declare to all people of İstanbul and Turkey that we will adhere to İstanbul Convention and follow the provisions of the Convention. I promise that we will be the supporter of the convention at the highest level, and we will be courageous to work together on what to do moment by moment."

İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İMM) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu made this promise at the meeting where he met with more than 80 representatives of women's organizations and women journalists.

At the meeting organized by SES Equality and Solidarity Association yesterday (May 26), Mayor İmamoğlu shared his views on the struggle for gender equality. Starting by saying, "We will defend the İstanbul Convention", İmamoğlu ended his speech with his words of determination that they will fight against the Canal İstanbul project as well.

'We must ensure gender equality together'

Some highlights from Mayor İmamoğlu's interview conducted by the questions of women's organizations were as follows:

"We see that women are figting in every field. Women are leading in the field of gender. Unfortunately, women in our country have to fight hard for gender equality.

"We have to put up this fight together. If we cannot achieve this, we cannot be a modern society. It is a desire of all of us to live in an equal society. With the Republic, we made an important start in this sense, but the steps that could not be taken later on, the inability of the society to get enough education have deepened some problems in the perspective on women. I believe that at the end of the day, we will win together.

İstanbul Convention

"Turkey is facing a critical problem in this sense. It took one of the worst and most degrading decisions of recent years: Withdrawing from the İstanbul Convention. None of our citizens should have any doubt that we will take steps to implement the content of the convention in terms of ensuring that every provision that is withdrawn from the convention is absolute for society.

'We have a course of action on gender equality'

"In particular, we will implement the articles of the Convention in this city for women to participate in social life. We would like to point out that we have a strict action plan on what steps we should take regarding gender equality.

"For example, the issue of women's employment is very important for us. Indeed, if we are to talk about development in the economy, the most important problem we need to deal with is the participation of women in production. We have to admit that we are far behind in this issue.

"We want to set an example in women's employment. We have tripled the number of female administrators in İMM. We haven't reached the level we desire yet, but we have tripled the previous period.

Application of the Mother's Card

"We are taking exemplary steps to address inequality by making announcements on women's employment. In some units where there are no women employees, we encourage women employees. We apply a quota for women in jobs such as the fire brigade and bus driver, and we want to be an exemplary public administration in this regard.

"I do not accept the criticism that it harms the process. Unfortunately, there is currently no equality between men and women. Women who could not leave the house socialized and took to the streets with this card.

"Thanks to this card, women who do not have a penny in their pocket benefit from their transportation rights. I am the promoter of this project myself.

Annulment of the İstanbul Convention: 'The solution is for the government to leave'

"İstanbul Convention is an international convention. There might be some views that local administrations can be a party to a convention binding for the states, but there is not much legal equivalence for this. 

"We have already stated over and over again that we support the İstanbul Convention and we will strictly abide by it. There is no point in saying 'we're in' as a local government. Because we are not authorized. The central administration, not us, is effective in security and in education.

"Even if we say we are a signatory, what matters is the attitude of the central government. The solution for this is to let them go by election.

LGBTI+ rights

"When they apply to our units, they will receive and are receiving services just like any of our citizens. I also keep track of this issue especially. Basically, we look at it like this: The first is what we can detect, and the second is the problems that arise with the applications of the citizens. Thirdly, the work that we are going to carry out with the suggestions of non-governmental organizations. As an institution, we stand with LGBTI+s, as we stand with every citizen.

Canal İstanbul

"It is the heaviest betrayal project history has ever seen. There is nothing heavier. There is no remedy. We think we will be able to prevent this process. We hope the government will not have enough time or breath for this.

"I hope that the people will give the answer that they deserve. Unfortunately, the world has seen nothing like this in recent years that is so insensitive to nature, green and human life. I hope that we will keep you informed about this canal issue and that we will prevent Canal Istanbul by operating the process in a democratic way.

"I know that even a single lira spent on it [Canal İstanbul] is unlawful. I know that it is very important to have women's power by our side in this regard. Let's be arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder."

(EMK/DCE/SD)