Violence against Kurdish women on the rise in Turkey

As violence against women and femicide continue to be a serious debate, especially after Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention protecting women’s rights, the Ankara Women’s Platform announced an increase in attacks on Kurdish women. Ankara Women’s Platform stated that attacks against women in the Kurdish provinces have increased since 2015 and that the perpetrators are often soldiers, police and village guards.

The platform organized a press conference on the policy of impunity for violence against women. According to the Mezopotamya news agency, platform member Sibel Göktas opened the press statement by recalling that Kurdish woman Jina Amini was murdered in Iran on 16 September 2022. Noting that Jina’s death was a turning point in Iranian women’s struggle for freedom, Göktas continued her speech by stating that the AKP-MHP government has systematically implemented a special war policy against Kurdish women in Turkey.

Closure of women’s associations

Göktas stressed that especially since 2015, the state’s efforts to prevent women’s struggle in the Kurdish provinces and the sexual harassment and attacks by law enforcement forces against Kurdish women have increased. She continued her statement on the attacks by saying: “The first thing that the administrators appointed to the municipalities in the Kurdish provinces did was to close down the women’s associations and solidarity centers that belonged to the municipalities. They appointed men to these centers and arrested and detained our friends who work in our women’s centers against violence against women. It is no coincidence that the perpetrators of the increasing number of murders of women, ‘disappearances’, rapes and other forms of violence in the region in recent years are mostly village guards, specialised sergeants or men working in any official institution and members of some political parties.”

Rapist Specialist Sergeant still not arrested 

Göktas explained that it was no coincidence by giving some examples: “It is not a coincidence that the father of Zaynal Abarakov, the perpetrator of Gülistan Doku’s disappearance in Dersim on 5 January 2020, was a police officer. On 18 August 2021, it is no coincidence that Musa Orhan, the perpetrator of İpek Er’s disappearance, was a specialist sergeant and has not yet been arrested, although he was sentenced to 10 years for “high degree sexual assault” with the lowest limit. On 18 August 2022, it is no coincidence that the perpetrator of 17-year-old Firdevs Babat, who went missing in Sirnak and was later raped and murdered, was a village guard.”

In the press statement, it is noted that men who commit sexual assault or femicide receive reduced sentences or are released under various pretexts, and it is stressed that the judiciary in Turkey protects the perpetrators. Stating that no woman is safe as long as the perpetrators of violence against women go unpunished and the state stands behind the perpetrators, Göktas concluded that they will increase women’s struggle against organized violence and stand by all women who are subjected to violence.