Abdullah Gul made a statement on March 8

Tomorrow on March 8 there is celebrated the International Women’s Day. In connection with the coming holiday the Turkish President Abdullah Gul said that along with development of democracy and growth of standards of human rights, also a substantial progress has been achieved also in struggle for women’s lib, reports Trend referring to TRT Russian.

Having referred to the fact that Turkey attaches great importance to the further struggle foe women’s lib, President Gul said the following: the great progress has been made in our country in terms of legal basis for these problems. Unfortunately enforcement of corresponding laws was not a quick one. Nowadays, it is necessary to change society’s approach to this question and enforce the laws endowing women with broad rights. In such a modern country as Turkey, such negative phenomena as gender discrimination, family violence, violation of right for education are unacceptable. These problems do not concern women only, but also all the society. 
Having stated that the quantity of women in the Parliament and on high-ranking state offices has not reached the desirable level yet, Gul said that for solving this problem there can be offered application of “positive discrimination”.

The chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT) Mahomet Ali Mahan in his turn noted that women were enfranchised in Turkey even earlier than in many European countries.

According to Şahin, «the quantity of women in the Parliament exceeds 9%. We are campaigning for the proliferation of women-parliamentarians and their active participation in democratic processes».