It is our call to the whole society and social opposition:

“We see the truth! We say NO to the constitutional amendment!

These days, the political scene is busy with its familiar but uncanny subject: Constitutional amendment. Yes, it is a familiar agenda, but it is pretty dangerous and worrying this time. This demand for change, which has set life, existence and freedom as its targets and has a destructive desire, again uses a familiar method: It divides the society unequally and hierarchically, making one of its segments bare and defenceless against the other.

This proposal for changing the constitution, which the government has instrumentalised to increase polarisation under the pretext of “protecting the family” and to mobilise society’s fears to gain votes, targets women and LGBTI+s. While describing LGBTI+ citizens as “deviants”, it positions LGBTI+ in opposition to women wearing headscarves. By distinguishing between women with and without “headscarves” it aims to bring societal hatred and polarisation to the constitutional plane. Moreover, hatred and division are brought about insidiously by starting a dispute over protecting the family and freedom of belief!

We see the puppeteer, not the puppet! We will not fight each other!

It is proposed to amend the article on the protection of the “family” by describing LGBTI+ citizens as “deviants” and stating that they are a “threat” to the family. Including this expression in the Constitution will legitimise hatred against LGBTI+s and increase violence using the Constitution. This means that when LGBTI+s are subjected to violence, the perpetrators can walk freely without prosecution. It will mean that LGBTI+ cannot enjoy the rights to education, healthcare, housing or work and cannot organise and express themselves. While preventing the visibility of LGBTI+ existence in media, culture, art and sports, this will help propagate the rhetoric and discourse that legitimise, spread and reward discrimination and violence!

The amendment also introduces a distinction between women with and without headscarves in the article regulating freedom of religion and conscience. Freedom of religion and conscience is discussed merely over women’s bodies and headscarves! Women wearing headscarves who had been subjected to injustice for years for what they wear are presented with a fait accompli without being asked. This blatantly discriminatory amendment proposal, which paves the way for questioning why and how women dress or cover their heads, is presented as a boon to women regarding their fundamental rights and freedoms. In addition, packaged with a regulation that foresees discrimination against LGBTI+ existence, it deepens societal polarization by presenting women wearing headscarves and LGBTI+s as separate clusters with nothing in common or no intersection.

The inclusion of this expression in the Constitution will pave the way for the powerful, that is, men, to interfere with women’s bodies through the Constitution, and those who have declared that they will not fight violence against women by withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention will take the next step in subjugating women with this amendment! It is a violation of the logic of the Constitution that a contract made to guarantee the equality, freedom and right to life of all individuals produces discrimination and violence; this proposed constitutional amendment is the abolition of the Constitution itself!

We don’t let go of each other’s hands! We leave none of us behind!

Against the hatred and violence that are tried to be finely interwoven, we are also subtly interweaving togetherness, love, peace and solidarity. We are against the abuse of our lives, our bodies, our beliefs and our dignity as political means. We will not submit to the attempts to declare anyone a criminal or an enemy because of their identity. Life is unique for everyone. We reject the understanding that dares to be harsh on the lives of those who are not like them and do not behave or think like them. We know another life is possible! It is possible to coexist with our identities and ideas in all their diversity! Our bond, empathy for each other, and shared stories are too strong to be broken by a few shameless sentences written in the Constitution. We fundamentally reject this constitutional amendment proposal and urge everyone to say NO to the constitutional amendment!