Turkey unveils new plan against violence targeting women

DM Monitoring

ANKARA: Turkey unveiled a four-year plan for combating violence against women. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the plan includes five main goals, 28 strategies and 227 actions and the first goal was to revise legislation and apply them effectively.
“Fighting violence against women has always been our priority. I support every step taken to that extent,” Erdoğan said as he unveiled the fourth action plan in the fight against violence targeting women.
The plan aims to reduce the number of cases of domestic violence and notorious “femicides.” Erdoğan, top government officials and representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) convened at the Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara Thursday for the launch of the plan.
The event coincided with the date of Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty for combating violence against women. “Some circles are trying to portray our withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention as a step back in our battle with violence against women,” he said. “Our battle did not start with the Istanbul Convention and it will not end with our withdrawal from the treaty,” he said.
Erdoğan said the violence against women had many different aspects and they first need to examine the factors contributing to the violence and eliminate them. “The possibility of children who considers violence as a normal behavior as future culprits of violence is high. The violence also aggravates rates of depression, crime rate and overall unrest in the society. We need to tackle the issue sincerely. Violence against women is a problem all countries face. We are trying to overcome it with legal regulations, measures of prevention and protection,” he said. Erdoğan noted that the action plan, the first edition of which was issued in 2007, was always being updated.
Last year, 266 women were victims of murders, often at the hands of their spouses, relatives or male friends. Some 95 women were killed in the first four months of this year according to the Interior Ministry. A report by the ministry presented to the Parliament last month indicates a drop in the number of domestic violence cases this year, from 77,000 to 73,000 in the first four months of 2021, while murders of women increased to 95 from 73 in the same period. Culprits were mostly husbands and boyfriends but 15% of victims suffered at the hands of their parents, siblings or children. Though several cases of domestic violence taking place outside drew public ire, the majority of domestic violence cases took place in the homes of victims.
Erdoğan summed up the five main goals as facilitation of access to legal services for women, integration of the all-out fight against violence to all policies, raising public awareness and proper collection of data regarding the issue.