ISTANBUL
More than 3,000 women have gathered for a females-only rally in Istanbul to mark International Women’s Day and denounce domestic and sexual violence in Turkey.
The women-only crowd met at 12:00 (1000 GMT) in Kadikoy on Istanbul's Anatolian side.
Organizers dedicated this year’s event to the memory of Ozgecan Aslan, the 20-year-old student whose murder in Mersin last month sparked outrage across Turkey, catapulting violence against women to the top of the domestic agenda.
The Istanbul March 8 Woman Platform -- an umbrella organization bringing together Turkish women’s rights groups -- said the rally was also dedicated to the "thousands of women who lost their lives at home, in streets or wars as a result of male-state violence."
However, opinion was split over the female-only nature of today's event.
One organizer, Hande Yanar, 28, whose job was to prevent men from entering the event area, said: “They [men] say they are here for women and there is no difference between man and woman.
“But today is Women’s Day and this is our struggle. We do not want men to have any initiative in his event,” she said.
However, 51-year-old Mehmet Zeytin claimed that he was there “to protect women in the event area from any provocation outside.”
He said, “as it is Women’s Day today it is women’s right to have their own celebration,” while waiting just a couple steps outside the event area.
Speaking to the crowd during the rally, pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party deputy chair Pervin Buldan said: “Women are subjected to violence at home, at the workplace, in the streets and squares.
“Everybody should know very well that we are not anyone’s daughter, sister, wife or honor,” Buldan said, adding: “We are women, we exist with our power, with our own identity.”
Referring to the ongoing peace talks between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Buldan said that women would bring peace to Turkey.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has also called on women all across the country to embrace the solution process, through which he said "no more cries of mothers will be heard."
In Kadikoy, another member of the March 8 platform, Zeynep Derya, read out a joint statement saying that women’s right to equal representation in all areas of life should be recognized.
According to information gathered from Turkish press reports by the Istanbul Human Rights Association, 28 women were killed and 38 women were injured by men in January while in February, 24 women were murdered and 17 were injured.
