Turkey's long history of femicides,A detailed report on femicide in Türkiye

 

A detailed report on femicide in Türkiye

#Turkey's #long #history of #femicides

After Erdogan came to power in Turkey, women in that country have no security, from economic security to life. Men follow Sharia law and oppress women, and sometimes kill and maim women. Many honor killings are not reported or published in the Turkish media. In Turkey, 12-year-old girls are getting married to older men. This law was passed by Erdogan. According to information obtained, one to two women are murdered in Türkiye every week. Femicide in Türkiye

The recent murder of Turkish student Pinar Gültekin by her ex-boyfriend has sparked outrage in Turkey. Women's rights activists are calling for the government to tackle the widespread problem of femicide in the country.

Twenty-nine women were murdered by men in Turkey in April and another 14 died under suspicious circumstances, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing the We Will Stop Femicide Platform.

Of the 29 women who were murdered, 19 were killed by their husbands or boyfriends and three by other relatives.

At least seven of the victims were killed over their decisions concerning their own lives, such as asking for a divorce, rejecting reconciliation with a romantic partner or declining a marriage proposal or romantic relationship.

On April 12 Sevilay Yaztırmak was killed in İstanbul by her husband, Şaban Yaztırmak, from whom she was seeking a divorce and had obtained a restraining order. On the same day Zeliha Çinibulak was murdered by her ex-husband, Serdar Harmancı.

Emine Akpınar was shot and killed in Samsun on April 16 by Emrah Akpınar, who was under a restraining order.

On April 29 Hatice Gül was shot dead in Kayseri by Mustafa Bozkurt, a former partner against whom she had also obtained a restraining order.

Femicide and violence against women are chronic problems in Turkey, where women are killed, raped or beaten almost every day.

According to the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, at least 394 women were murdered by men in 2024.

Many critics say the main reason behind the situation is the policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which protects violent and abusive men by granting them impunity.

Turkish courts have repeatedly drawn criticism due to their tendency to hand down lenient sentences to offenders, claiming that the crime was merely “motivated by passion” or by interpreting victims’ silence as consent.

In a move that attracted national and international outrage, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used a presidential decree to withdraw the country from an international treaty in March 2021 that requires governments to adopt legislation prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence and similar abuse as well as marital rape and female genital mutilation.

Twenty-nine women were murdered by men in Turkey in April

The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the İstanbul Convention, is an international accord designed to protect women’s rights and prevent domestic violence in societies and was opened to the signature of Council of Europe member countries in 2011. Turkey had been a party to the convention until 2021.

Erdoğan’s allies have also been calling for further rollbacks, urging the repeal of a domestic law that stipulates protection mechanisms for women who either have suffered or are at risk of suffering violence.

We Will Stop Femicides Platform January 2025 Report

In January 2025, 33 women were killed by men, and 32 women were found suspiciously dead.

2025 January Report*

33 Femicides and 32 Suspicious Deaths of Women in January

The fight to stop femicides in Turkey has been going on for 14 years. As the Platform, since we identified the need in 2010, we have been disclosing femicide data to the public. Instead of explaining how many women have been killed, why, how and by whom, the Ministry of Interior distorts the facts by saying that the data on femicides are incorrectly prepared. It is the duty of the state not only to disclose the reality of femicides and suspicious deaths of women but also to implement concrete solutions to stop femicides. We will continue to fight for the mobilization of all relevant ministries and mechanisms to fulfil this duty.

The reason behind 20 femicides could not be determined

This month, 33 femicides were committed, and 32 women were found suspiciously dead. 8 women were killed on the pretext of wanting to make decisions about their own life, such as wanting a divorce, refusing to reconcile, refusing to marry, or rejecting a relationship. 1 woman was murdered on the pretext of not preparing food. The reason behind 20 of the 33 femicides could not be determined. The inability to determine the excuse behind the murder of 20 women is the result of violence against women and femicides being rendered invisible. Unless it is determined by whom and why women were killed, unless a fair trial is conducted and the suspects, defendants and murderers are given deterrent punishments and unless preventive measures are implemented, violence continues to increase in size.

We would like to share the names of the women, each of whom was a life:

Femicide data in the month of January, by city:

By whom were the women killed?

Of the 33 women killed in January, 8 were killed by the man they were married to, 5 by the man they were with, 6 by a relative, 3 by an acquaintance, 3 by their son, 3 by their brother, 2 by the man they used to be married to and 1 by her father. This month, 24% of the women who were killed were killed by the man they were married to.

Women were mostly killed in their homes

23 of the women were killed at their homes, 3 in the middle of the street, 1 in a deserted place, 1 in an hospital and 1 in a park. It could not be determined where 4 women were killed. 70% of the women killed this month were killed in their homes.

Women were mostly killed with firearms

17 of the women killed this month were killed with firearms, 8 with sharp objects, 3 by strangulation, 2 by being beaten to death and 1 by being burned to death. The weapon which was used to kill 2 women could not be determined. 52% of the women killed this month were killed with firearms.

After 2024, the Year with the Highest Number of Femicides, 2025 was declared the “Year of the Family”

While 2024 was the year with the highest recorded number of femicides, the political power declared 2025 as the “Year of the Family”. Declaring 2025 as the “Year of the Family” is a highly controversial approach in a country filled with violence against women and gender-based discrimination. It is known that a significant portion of crimes against women take place within the family, hence the primary goal should be to empower women and children instead of prioritizing the family as an institution. In 2024, 226 women were murdered by the men they were married to, their fathers or their sons. Although the family plays an important role as a social support mechanism, unhealthy family structures are the root cause of many problems. Policies aimed at forcibly keeping women in families characterized by violence and abuse threaten individual rights and freedoms. Practices such as family mediation and temporary alimony, which are planned to be introduced as part of the judicial package, are regulations that will force women to stay in marriages where they are subjected to violence. Such practices harm women’s individual freedoms and security, and reinforce the cycle of violence. The majority of the regulations on women in the judicial package are an attack on women’s acquired rights. It is a mistake to focus on the quantity of the population and to see this as a demographic issue when the basic human rights of individuals are not being protected. In Turkey, at least one woman is being murdered every day due to gender-based discrimination. In the face of this reality, it is a grave mistake to reflect the primary problem as fertility rates. The primary problem of society is that citizens cannot access basic human rights. The priority of the political power should not be birth rates and the protection of the family; it should be the women and children who struggle for their life every day.

We Stand Against Unlawful Arrests

The political power has been increasing its repression in 2025. In many municipalities, people’s electoral will was ignored and trustees were appointed and mayors were arrested. These interventions against democracy threaten people’s right to representation. After 12 years, people are still being arrested for the Gezi Park resistance. The political power casts a shadow on the independence of the judiciary by producing various justifications for those it wants to arrest. Yet, in the case of Pınar Gültekin, the Court of Appeals overturned the sentence of the perpetrator Cemal Metin Avcı on the grounds that the murder was not committed with a ‘monstrous feeling’ and demanded an ‘unjust provocation’ reduction. We still do not know what happened to Rojin Kabaiş. In such an environment where criminals are protected and acquitted, many people face unlawful arrests. Instead of ensuring equality and security in society, the justice system is being turned into an instrument that serves the interests of the political power.

Negligence in the Bolu Kartalkaya Grand Kartal Hotel caused the death of 78 people. Investigations revealed that the hotel was negligent in many ways. We will follow the incident to ensure that the people who are responsible for inspecting the hotel, the hotel owners and everyone who was negligent will be prosecuted. There are many people in Turkey who have lost their lives due to negligence. If the necessary precautions had been taken, many lives could have been saved in disasters. For example, the death toll in the February 6 earthquakes increased because of deficiencies in building supervision, inadequacies in disaster management and the failure to take necessary safety measures.  While investigations after such disasters show that most of the deaths are preventable, the authorities avoid taking responsibility.

 

Case Developments of January

In the case against Ş. K., who sexually abused 5 girls between the ages of 6 and 16 for years in Erzurum, the defendant was acquitted. The Court of Appeals overturned this decision and sentenced Ş. K. to 112 years in prison for ‘aggravated abuse of a child’.

 

Yusuf İnci, the brother of AKP Sakarya Deputy Ali İnci, was sentenced to 26 years in prison for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl. The defendant’s lawyer’s request for ‘correction of the verdict’ on the grounds that the act was committed with the ‘consent of the victim’ was accepted by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of Cassation.

 

In the case filed against Ferhat İnne, the man who killed Canan Çeviren at her workplace in Manisa in 2022, the defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the Court of Cassation overturned the life sentence on the grounds that no ‘discretionary reduction’ was made. Manisa 5th Criminal Court sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment without any reductions for ‘intentional killing’ once again after the Court of Cassation reversed the verdict twice. In the end, the Court of Cassation decided to annul the previous reversal decision on the verdict given for the third time. 

 

In the case of Gamze Yağlıoğlu, who died after suspiciously falling from a height in Antalya, the defendant was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment. The Antalya Regional Court of Law acquitted the defendant due to lack of evidence.

What happened regarding women in January?

We protested in Istanbul for Rojin Kabaiş, who was missing for 18 days in Van, and the truth behind her death remains unrevealed. We will continue our struggle until justice is achieved for Rojin and all those responsible are brought to justice.

 

US President Donald Trump announced in his inauguration speech that he would end the recognition of other gender identities, saying, “From now on, there are only two genders in America, men and women.”

A woman who was found at fault in a divorce case by a French court for refusing to have sexual intercourse with her husband won her appeal at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The ECHR ruled in her favor, stating that the French court had violated her right of respect for private and family life.

The Iraqi parliament announced that it would amend the personal status law and lower the marriage age for girls from 18 to 9.

 

Suspicious deaths of women should be revealed immediately

As we have been stating in our reports for a while, there is a very serious increase in the number of suspicious deaths of women presented as suicides or natural deaths and in the number of women who were found suspiciously dead during the pandemic. Unfortunately, shedding light on the suspicious deaths of women can be even more difficult than femicides. It is necessary to reveal whether women were killed, whether they were killed by accident, whether women were killed on the basis of gender (whether it was femicide), whether they committed suicide or whether they were driven to suicide.

In Mersin, E. N. Y. died after suspiciously falling from the 13th floor of her apartment. 27-year-old Batuhan Delici, the man she was with, also fell to his death.

In Giresun, 26-year-old Fatma T. was found dead after suspiciously being hit by pellets coming from the shotgun of her brother D. Y.. D. Y. and four other suspects were detained.

In Kırklareli, 25-year-old Sedanur Akalın was found dead at the home of B. Ç., the man she was with. B. Ç. was detained.

In Batman, 53-year-old Gülistan Yılmaz died after suspiciously falling from the 3rd floor.

In Ankara, 27-year-old İ. Ö. died after suspiciously falling out of a moving car driven by the man she was with.

The stories of the life struggles of the 33 women killed in January

It was revealed that Nezaket Uyur, who had been missing since 2005, was strangled to death by Nihat Önel and that the man Nezaket was married to had paid the perpetrator to kill her. It was also learned that Nezaket Kışı, a relative of Nezaket Uyur, was murdered around the same time. Zekiye Aydın was also murdered around the same years by Sabri Önel, a relative of Nihat Önel.

In Elazığ, Semra Demirelli was shot dead with a firearm by Vahap Çetin, the man she wanted to break up with. The perpetrator later committed suicide with the same weapon.

In Antalya, 36-year-old Pınar Zorlu was burned to death in the middle of the street by Gürhan Ü., the man she was used to be married to. After fighting for her life for 20 days, Pınar Zorlu passed away. She had gotten four restraining orders against the perpetrator.

In Bursa, 25-year-old Fatma Elif Zorlu was shot dead with a firearm by Harun K., the man she was with, under the pretext of jealousy.

In Istanbul, 27-year-old Türken Farziyeva was stabbed to death multiple times by her brother, Farsat Farziyeva, under the pretext that she dressed ‘immodestly’.

In Istanbul, Burcu Seymen, mother of two, was shot dead with a firearm by Melik A., the man she was with.

In Istanbul, Ayşe Çelik was shot dead with a firearm by Engin Çelik, the man she was in the process of divorce. It was learned that the perpetrator lured Ayşe to the courthouse under the pretext of filing a divorce petition and later killed her in his car. Ayşe had been subjected to violence by the perpetrator for some time and had been receiving death threats for a year.

In Istanbul, Gülnaz Adal, mother of six, was shot dead in the head with a firearm while she was sleeping by Vedat Adal, the man she was married to.

In Afyonkarahisar, 37-year-old Derya Kozak was shot dead with a firearm by Mustafa Akbuğa, the man she had an argument with at the hospital. The perpetrator later committed suicide with the same weapon.

In Kocaeli, 60-year-old Hazal A., mother of five, was shot dead with a shotgun by Şener A., the man she was married to.

In Adana, 23-year-old Gamze Alır, mother of two, was taken to a forest and shot dead with a firearm by Murat A., the man she was with.

In Tekirdağ, Shaxnoz L. and her 7-year-old daughter Şehrinin O., were shot dead with a firearm by Necip O. The perpetrator later attempted suicide with the same weapon.

In Istanbul, 12-year-old Meryem S. was beaten to death with a paving stone by Zekeriya A., her 51-year-old neighbor. The perpetrator also injured Meryem’s 5-year-old brother Ahmet S.

In Mersin, Ferdane Tehçi, mother of two, was first beaten naked with a baton and then strangled to death by police officer Mehmet Tehçi, the man she was married to. The perpetrator later went to Adana and stabbed Ferdane’s mother Hüsne Tehçi, and her father’s sister Semihe Tehçi to death.

In Şanlıurfa, 5-year-old M. N. B. was sexually assaulted and then strangled to death.

In Ankara, 39-year-old Meryem Demirkoparan, mother of four, was stabbed to death by Yücel Demirkoparan, the man she was married to. The perpetrator committed suicide after the incident.

In Mersin, 70-year-old Gülizar Ateş was stabbed to death by her grandson who had been released from prison three days earlier. The perpetrator was arrested.

In Konya, 51-year-old Canfeda Tunç was killed by her son Ali Tunç. The perpetrator also killed Canfeda’s father and brother before committing suicide.

In Gaziantep, 39-year-old Fatma Köklü was shot in an armed attack by Mehmet Yeter, the man she used to be married to. After fighting for her life for nine days, Fatma passed away. The perpetrator had previously sent death threats to Fatma and she had gotten a restraining order against him.

In Istanbul, perpetrator B. Y. shot and killed his mother Aysun Yenigün, sister Zilan Yenigün, and grandmother Fatma İnce with a firearm. The perpetrator ran away but was caught after some time.

In Muğla, 25-year-old Ümmühan Korkut was beaten to death by Yunus Korkut, the man she was married to, on the pretext of ‘not preparing food’. Ümmühan lost her life in the hospital. The perpetrator was arrested.

In Afyonkarahisar, 41-year-old Sevgi Erbay, mother of four, was shot dead with a firearm by her son H. H. B. The perpetrator and his friend O. K. were arrested.

In Gaziantep, 19-year-old Hale El Şıh İsmail was shot dead with a firearm by her brother. Her sister Meryem was injured. The perpetrator has not been caught.

In İzmir, 25-year-old Melisa Çırgı was stabbed to death by Hasan Çırgı, the man she was married to and who had escaped from prison and had 48 prior criminal records. The perpetrator was arrested.

In Mardin, 80-year-old Latife Kaya was shot dead with a shotgun in her sleep by Ali Kaya, the man she was married to. The perpetrator was taken into custody.

In Malatya, 83-year-old Emine Gürbüz was stabbed to death by her relative Burak K. The perpetrator was taken into custody.

Our Report: Every month, the news on violence against women in the press includes cases, new incidents and details about the women's movement. We compile the news reflected in the press and the applications that come directly to us, reach a number and prepare our report within this framework. We analyze, compile and evaluate our Femicide Report according to the concept of femicide. In other words, the conceptualization of femicide is; “the killing or forcing into suicide of individuals of the female gender, from embryo to fetus, infant to child, adult to elderly, by a man, simply because of their gender or on the pretext of their actions contrary to the gender stereotypes. and the perception of gender identity. Femicides should not be perceived sorely as murders in which people of the female gender are killed. In these murders committed with hatred, what is attacked is the female identity itself”

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