The yearly statistics were published on the violence against women in Turkey on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25.
According to the news compiled by Bianet from local and national newspapers, news websites and agencies, men killed at least 302 women in several provinces of Turkey in 324 days between January 1, 2019 and November 20, 2019. “At least 10 murdered women were not citizens of Turkey (one woman was from Azerbaijan, two women from Syria, two from Afghanistan, one from Iraq, one from Ukraine, one from Morocco and one woman was from Uzbekistan)” said Bianet.
“64 percent of women were killed by their husbands/ex-husbands or boyfriends/ex-boyfriends. 198 women were killed by their husbands, ex-husbands, boyfriends or ex-boyfriends. While 31 women were murdered by their family members such as fathers, brothers or sons, 20 women were killed by their neighbors or friends and eight women by their relatives. 19 women were killed by their ex-sons-in-law. One trans woman was killed by a police officer, one woman by her customer, one woman by a man whose child goes to the same school with hers and one woman was killed by her boss. The acquaintance/relation between the women and perpetrators in at least 23 feminicides was not reported in the press. Men killed 49 percent of women with firearms. Men killed 149 women with firearms and 74 women by stabbing them. While men killed 25 women by strangling them, they beat 20 women to death. Men burned four women to death and killed one woman with acidic water. Men crushed the heads of two women with a stone and ran over one woman with a vehicle. Men threw two women off the balcony. How men killed 24 women was not reported in the media.”
The Law Bureau for Help Against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Detention has released the “The Year 2019 Statistical Report,”. As published in Bianet, Human Rights Association (İHD) Co-Chair Eren Keskin and human rights defender Leman Yurtsever stated in their report that “the increase in the violence against women and feminicides are not independent of the political violence and they pointed out that the İstanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, which was signed by Turkey in 2011, is not applied as required.”
According to the report “five women were sexually assaulted, and 26 women were sexually harassed in detention between January 1 and November 25: “Thirty-one women, 11 of which are currently behind bars, applied to the bureau. Two of them are under 18 years old. 24 women were Kurds, five were Turks and two were Azerbaijanis. Twenty-six women were harassed, and five women were sexually assaulted. 24 of the perpetrators were police officers, two were soldiers/gendarmerie officers, three were prison guards, three were other public officers, and two were Free Syrian Army (FSA) members. Out of 31 women, 24 were detained due to “political reasons” or “reasons related to the war,” the report said. Among the seven people who were detained due to “judicial reasons”, six were harassed and one was raped. There is a total of 11 lawsuits, 10 of them being at the prosecutor’s office and one at the penal court. Twenty cases were closed, and 11 women did not want to take legal action “because they feared,” the report stated. Two women who were subjected to sexual harassment/assault are pursuing the cases themselves while nine cases are being pursued by attorneys.”
A total of 380 women have been so far killed by their male partners, relatives or abusers in Turkey this year, as compared to 399 in the previous year, according to a report by Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu (We Will Stop Femicides Platform), a women’s rights organization that monitors violence against women.
You can click here for Bianet’s Male Violence Monitoring Report
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