Sociological Analysis Of Istanbul Convention According To Eastern And Western Communities
Abstract
The Istanbul Convention was published in 2011 with the title of "The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence ". It is referred to as the Istanbul Convention since it was drafted in Istanbul with Turkey taking the lead and was the first country to sign the convention. There are many countries from Europe that have signed the convention while some countries have signed the convention with some annotations. There are also some countries, such as Russia and Bulgaria, who have signed the convention in the beginning but then withdrawn their signatures. The most important reason for latter countries to withdraw from the convention is that the convention text contains content that is against the family, social structures and the protection of the family.
Although the Convention claims aiming at protecting society and the family together, it contains many explicit and implicit provisions and perceptions that are completely contrary to the basic social structure of Turkey and Eastern Islamic societies Except for a few European countries who advocate social gender equality and are prominent in feminism, the aforementioned convention is not unanimously recognized and valued in front of the world like the UN Declaration of Human Rights since it is also against the social structure of other Western societies.
In this study, the issue has been analysed by making an analysis through the articles of the Istanbul Convention. The issue is discussed within the concepts and theories of the disciplines of Sociology, Psychology and Social Psychology. The first two chapters were developed by taking into account the mentality and family structure characteristics of the Eastern and Western societies, social sexism, feminism and modern and postmodern processes of influence and repression. The third and last part forms the assessment and conclusion part in which some examples from the articles of the convention are analysed in terms of their congruities and discrepancies with the first two chapters, and the study is concluded. Of course, only selected provisions of the convention were analysed since the analysis of all provisions of the convention individually would exceed the essay boundaries.
In conclusion, this Convention which bears major inconsistencies and contradiction with the social and family structures of Western and Eastern societies in general, and of Turkey's and European societies in particular, must either be removed completely or amended largely and fundamentally by making hard-core changes in it. Otherwise, this convention will be in line with the theories and ideologies of social sexism, de-sexualisation and feminism, all of which are the tools of the post-modern order, but it will also become one of the most important tools of the post-modern process as the most important discriminating function that will ensure the dissolution and disintegration of families due to the fundamental contradictions with the social structures of the West, and especially, of the East.
