Femicide on the rise in Türkiye for years

The ‘We Will Stop Femicide Platform’ has published its April 2023 report, which includes data on femicide in Türkiye. According to the report, in the month of April this year, 21 women were murdered by men and 23 women were found dead under suspicious circumstances.
The platform, which was created in 2010, continued its activities in 2012 as an association founded by the relatives of the murdered women and women who were subjected to violence. As the ministries did not collect data on the extent and causes of femicide, the platform started reporting data on femicide in 2010. The data collected by the platform show that there has been a serious increase in femicide during the Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule.
This increase can be clearly seen when looking at the last 10 years of the association’s reports. While 237 women were murdered by men in 2013, the total number of women killed each year in the following years was 294 in 2014, 303 in 2015, 328 in 2016, and 409 in 2017.
Since 2018, the platform has also been reporting suspicious women deaths due to an increase in murders disguised as accidents and suicides. That year, 440 women were killed and 131 deaths were suspicious. According to the latest published annual data, there were 334 femicides and 245 suspicious women deaths last year. In 2002, when the AKP came to power, the number of femicides was 66.
Violence against women and girls is one of the most serious human rights violations in the country, yet perpetrators often go unpunished or receive light sentences. The platform’s 2022 report states: “The policy of impunity has taken on a new dimension, where the perpetrators are no longer arrested. Impunity, in fact a pat on the back for the killers, has paved the way for femicide.”
Despite the escalating number of femicides, Türkiye withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, an international agreement to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence, through a presidential decree issued by Turkish President Erdogan on 20 March 2021.