FLOWERS have been laid at the Turkish embassy in London at a vigil to remember the women who have been murdered in Turkey and Kurdistan.

Representatives of organisations including feminist group FiLIa, trade unionists on strike at the Tate Gallery, Labour Party members, women from the Kurdish Community Centre and activists from the Socialist Women’s Union (SKB) joined Friday evening’s event organised by Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign (KSC).

A minute’s silence was held as those gathered displayed placards bearing the names of all the women killed in Turkey this year. Campaigners have warned that the country was becoming “a slaughterhouse for women.”

Members of the KSC laid a wreath at the embassy in memory of the women killed due to the misogynistic “war against women” of the Turkish state as part of a day of action to “Defend Women’s Lives in Turkey and Kurdistan.” 

Earlier, activists delivered a petition to Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Downing Street while a projection highlighting the attacks on women’s rights was displayed at Trafalgar Square.

Labour Party activist Vanessa Roberts said:  “Almost 500 women were killed in Turkey and yet the government in Ankara is considering withdrawal from the Istanbul convention that offers legal and social guidance on how to curb violence against women. 

“So it’s very important that here in the UK we stand in solidarity with our Turkish and Kurdish sisters.”

KSC’s Paula Lamont said: “Rape and the murder of women is used as a weapon of war against the Kurds, particularly by the AKP government.

“When perpetrators are caught and prosecuted for rape and violence against women, the courts have regularly handed down either very, very light sentences or no sentences at all, and there is very little justice open to women who are the victims of male violence in Turkey.”