Turkey’s Presence in the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in the Context of Turkey’s Soft Power

Abstract

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, commonly known as the Istanbul Convention, and in Poland also as the anti-violence convention, was opened for signature in Istanbul on May 11, 2011. Turkey was one of the first countries to sign and ratify the document. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then as Prime Minister-in-Office, was one of the great advocates of Ankara ratifying the Convention. However, the politician, already as president, “celebrated” the Republic’s decade-long presence in the Convention by signing a decree in March 2021 annulling Turkey’s ratification of the document. The text aims to analyse Turkey’s involvement in the preparation and subsequent adoption of the Istanbul Convention in the context of building Turkish soft power on the Old Continent. The text structure is as follows: the first part will define the concept of soft power and analyse the evolution of Turkish soft power. Then, the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence will be described, and the next part will chronologically describe the presence of the Republic in the Convention. The last part analyses Turkey’s activities related to the preparation and adoption of the Istanbul Convention in the context of building Turkish soft power in Europe.