At least 315 women were killed by men in Turkey in 2023, with incidents of femicide increasing during the election period due to the “misogynist policies” of the government, the Artı Gerçek news website reported on Tuesday, citing data from the We Will Stop Femicide Platform (KCDP), reports Turkish Minute.
The KCDP on Tuesday announced its 2023 report on femicide and suspicious deaths of women in Turkey, with Secretary-General Fidan Ataselim elaborating on the data.
According to the report, 315 women were murdered by men in Turkey in 2023, while 248 died under suspicious circumstances. In 2022, 334 women were killed by men in Turkey while 245 others died under suspicious circumstances, according to the KCDP’s 2022 report.
Ataselim also shared the observation that the number of femicides increased in May 2023 due to the policies of politicians in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) against women’s rights.
The report further showed that the perpetrators of violence against women in Turkey are mostly their husbands, ex-husbands or partners or in some cases their fathers or brothers.
“The reason we are killed by men we don’t know is because we are seen as easy to kill,” Ataselim added, drawing attention to the fact that a solution can be provided by deterrent laws.
She said women are mostly killed with guns and that weapons can be easily purchased in Turkey. The most effective solution to stop the murder of women would be to change the gun laws, according to Ataselim.
Femicides and violence against women are chronic problems in Turkey, where women are killed, raped or beaten almost every day. Many critics say the main reason behind the situation is the policies of the AKP government, which protects violent and abusive men by granting them impunity.
Despite opposition from the international community and women’s rights groups, Turkey officially withdrew from the Istanbul Convention in July 2021, which requires governments to adopt legislation prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence and similar abuse as well as marital rape and female genital mutilation.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed at the time that the treaty had been “hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality” which he said was “incompatible” with Turkey’s “social and family values.”
Turkish courts have repeatedly drawn criticism due to their tendency to hand down lenient sentences to offenders, claiming that the crime was “motivated by passion” or by interpreting victims’ silence as consent.
Ataselim also talked about an ongoing closure case against the platform, saying that the platform filed a criminal complaint against the people targeting it and would continue to fight for women’s rights.
An İstanbul prosecutor had filed the lawsuit in April, accusing the group of “activity against law and morals.”
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