On the occasion of the “International Day of the Girl Child”, celebrated by the United Nations on October 11 to promote the recognition of the rights of girls around the world, Turkey finds itself at the heart of a tragedy which is relaunching the debate on violence against women. In recent weeks, several feminicides, including the murder of a little girl, have shocked the country.
3 mins
With our correspondent in Ankara, Anne Andlauer
Firstly, there was the murder of Narin, an 8-year-old girl in Diyarbakir, in the south-east of the Türkiyewhich caused outrage. A dozen people, including his mother, a brother and an uncle, are currently in detention, investigators being certain that the crime was committed in the family. Added to this are the murders of two young people womenmurdered last week in Istanbul by the same man, who then beheaded one of them before committing suicide.
A system that fails to protect women
These crimes, although shocking many because of their brutality, recall a tragic reality that feminist NGOs denounce: violence against women in Türkiye. Since the start of the year, at least 295 women have been killed, most often by their spouses, ex-partners, or close family members, such as fathers, ex-husbands, boyfriends, or brothers.
Feminist NGOs in Türkiye denounce a system that does not protect women. They highlight the flaws at several levels, particularly in police stations where the complaints of women victims of violence are not always listened to. Then come the courts, where some judges still find extenuating circumstances for perpetrators of femicide; sometimes reduce the sentence because the murderer “has well behaved » at the hearing; grant parole to violent husbands who rush to kill their wives; or even allow themselves to comment on the outfit of the women who come to testify.
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A government responsibility?
Feminist organizations hold the authorities responsible for this situation. Although Turkey has adequate laws on paper, the government prioritizes the protection of family », which he considers threatened by feminist movements, the LGBT movement and Western influences. This priority choice has negative effects on women’s rights and safety. For example, in 2021, the president Erdogan took the decision to withdraw Turkey from the Istanbul Conventionan international treaty of the Council of Europe on preventing and combating violence against women.
For its part, the government has promised new measures after the murders of recent weeks. The Minister of Justice spoke this week of the possible removal of sentence reductions for “ good behavior » and a review of parole measures for, according to, “ put an end to the feeling of impunity “. President Erdogan used the same expression.
However, he also defended his record: he claimed that Turkey had done “ a leap forward » in the fight against violence against women, that the withdrawal of the Istanbul Convention had not caused women to lose anything, and that alcohol consumption was the main reason for the violence, which no study supports support. Words which worry more than reassure Turkish feminist NGOs.
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