12 women were murdered in 13 days in Turkey

12 more women were murdered in the last 13 days in Turkey as femicides - slaying of women by their husbands or boyfriends - continue despite public outrage by women's rights defenders, Milliyet newspaper reported on Thursday.

 According to Turkey’s We Will Stop Femicide Platform, 285 women were murdered by men and 239 other found dead in suspicious conditions since 1 July 2021, when Turkey withdrew from Istanbul Convention, a treaty by the Council of Europe on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Women’s rights groups say the withdrawal was a huge setback creating a lack of preventive measures against violence and blame the government to take the matter lightly, not even filing the murders comprehensively.

“36 women were killed in May and 31 women in June. Do we know their age, marital status, education level? No government statistics reveal such data. We need to change this.” Milliyet quoted Canan Güllü from the Women's Associations Federation. 

Rights groups say easily acquired weapons are also to blame for the hike in the murders. 

“A large part of the murdered women are killed with firearms, and these sell like hot cakes on the internet, but no one moves a finger” said Rukiye Suren, one of the lawyers of the We Will Stop Femicide Platform.