Police detained some 200 demonstrators in İstanbul late on Saturday after more than 3,000 women marched peacefully through the city center under tight security to mark International Women’s Day, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the organizers.
For years protests have been banned in the city’s central Taksim Square, which is routinely fenced off with barriers. However, authorities in recent years have tolerated rallies nearby, albeit under a heavy security presence.
The Feminist Night March rally began at sunset near Taksim, with many demonstrators wearing purple and waving banners with slogans including “We won’t be silenced, we’re not afraid and we won’t obey” and “Long live our feminist struggle.”
Although the march ended without incident, organizers said police then began rounding up protesters, posting footage showing officers roughly dragging several demonstrators out of the crowd.
“After the #FeministNightMarch finished and the crowd dispersed without incident, the police started to detain our friends in an act of provocation,” the march organizers wrote on X.
“Nearly 200 women were unjustly detained on March 8!” they added.
There was no immediate comment from the authorities.
Earlier, several hundred demonstrators had gathered for a protest in the Kadıköy district on the Asian side of the city, also waving banners as they marched through the streets.
“With our demand for an end to violence against women, for the ratification of the Istanbul Convention against femicide … and for social policies that don’t place the burden of care on women, we are pursuing our March 8 struggle for democracy, equality, peace and fraternity,” Arzu Çerkezoğlu, chairwoman of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), told AFP.
She was referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 2021 decision to withdraw Turkey from the Istanbul Convention, which requires countries to implement laws aimed at preventing and prosecuting violence against women.
Turkey does not compile official figures on femicides, leaving this task to women’s organizations, which gather data on murders and other suspicious deaths from press reports.
According to figures collected by the We Will Stop Femicide Platform rights organization, at least 1,318 women have been killed by men since Turkey withdrew from the convention in March 2021.
