Turkish opposition leader vows to reinstate women’s rights accord

Meral Akşener, the leader of the nationalist opposition Good Party, vowed to reinstate a key women’s rights agreement abolished by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Diken news website reported.

Akşener said she would ensure that the accord re-entered Turkey’s statute books as the first act under her premiership following presidential and parliamentary elections, which are scheduled to be held by June next year. Akşener says she plans to become prime minister under an opposition bloc deal to abolish Turkey’s presidential system of government, introduced in 2018.

The politician made the pledge in answering questions posed by her followers on Instagram, Diken said on Monday.

Last week, the United Nations urged Turkey to reverse a decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty aimed at preventing violence against women. The government withdrew from the convention in July last year, acting on concerns that it promoted homosexuality and undermined family values.

Perpetrators had been emboldened by the decision, effectively leaving victims at increased risk of violence, Reem Alsalem, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said on Wednesday after a visit to Turkey.

The Good Party is Turkey's third-most popular political group, according to most opinion polls. Akşener also vowed to crack down on corruption to help bring Turkish people out of poverty.

“We will prevent theft, we will prevent waste. We will not steal, you will live in wealth,” she said, according to Diken. She also repeated a pledge to send Syrian refugees back to their homeland should the opposition gain power.