‘They Have More at Stake’: Turkey Elects Wave of Women Mayors Amid Fears of Eroding Rights
Turkey’s elections increased female mayors from 4 to 11, driven by CHP’s focus and rising concerns for women’s rights amid growing gender violence and eroding protections
Turkey’s massive opposition win in last weekend’s nationwide local elections raised the number of women as mayors from four to 11, including notable wins in some traditionally conservative areas amid growing concerns for women’s rights in the country. Many attribute this to the overall success of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), which won more mayoral elections and by greater margins than expected.
Serpil Atamaz, an associate professor of history at California State University who specializes in women’s issues in Turkey, told The Media Line that the CHP made a strategic decision to nominate more women in cities where they had a higher likelihood of winning, adding, “It was kind of an important and bold move on CHP’s part.”
Ten of the 11 elected women were with opposition parties, many of them relatively young or new to politics. Notably, 31-year-old Gulistan Sonuk from the pro-Kurdish DEM party won in Batman, and Gönül Karabacak of the CHP took the mayoral seat in Konya, beating out the Kurdish Sunni Islamist Free Cause Party, which has typically allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party.
Additionally, Burcu Köksal made history as the first woman and CHP member to become mayor of Afyonkarahisar. Other significant victories included the conservative Üsküdar district in Istanbul and a village led by activist Nejla Işık.
Atamaz said many people in Turkey are seeing the results as a turning point. She told The Media Line, “Finally, we are seeing something different now. Most of the population is young, most of the population is women, and they’re finally being heard and represented in these positions.”
According to Atamaz, there was a push for more female candidates partly because citizens saw women doing well in local positions and wanted to see them take on larger roles. She also believes many wanted a shift away from the traditionally older male candidates with long careers in politics.
They have more at stake basically, especially during election time. They want more women in power.
“Women constitute a big part of the population in general in Turkey, and women also have been very afraid of losing their rights,” Atamaz said. “They have more at stake basically, especially during election time. They want more women in power.”
Campaigners have said that violence against women has been on the rise for years, with a recent spike since the pandemic. More than a third of women in Turkey between the ages of 15 and 59 who have ever been married have reported experiencing intimate partner violence, according to the UN.
In 2021, the Turkish government withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, which is focused on protecting women against violence, which led to demonstrations across the country and criticism from the US and the European Union.
The government argued that Turkish laws were in place to protect women. However, the 2023 ranking of countries for gender inequality by the World Economic Forum placed Turkey at 129 out of 146 countries.
The long-fought-for rights of women were being eroded
Zeynep Alemdar, a professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Okan University, told The Media Line that violence against women in Turkey has become more visible and believes women became more concerned after the Free Cause Party, described as “an extreme Islamist party,” entered parliament last year during the country’s general elections.
“The long-fought-for rights of women were being eroded,” Alemdar said. “That might have affected the fact that people actually voted for female candidates.”
She added that the CHP may have been motivated to put more women forward after being criticized for the low number of female candidates for parliament during the election last year.
Alemdar stated that the women’s movement in Turkey has been better than other civil society movements to overcome ideological differences and unite over shared interests.
“Women have been working with each other for a very long time, and I think this is actually a culmination of that struggle,” she said.
However, she cautioned that just because there are more female mayors, it does not mean that they will all automatically focus on women’s rights, and she believes the women’s movement would keep them “in check.”
