ISTANBUL (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden has called Turkey’s abandonment of an international agreement aimed at preventing violence against women “deeply disappointing.” In a White House statement, Biden said Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention was “a disheartening step backward for the international movement to end violence against women globally.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ended Turkey’s participation in the Council of Europe agreement through an overnight decree issued early Saturday. The move was a blow to the country’s women’s rights movement, which says domestic violence and femicide are on the rise. The Turkish presidency issued a statement Sunday explaining that Turkey’s unilateral decision resulted from the agreement being used to protect LGBT rights.
