Three ministers and the head of Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) met on Wednesday in the Turkish capital Ankara to introduce a new action plan for 2022 to tackle violence against women, a complex issue highlighted by domestic violence and femicide committed by their former or current spouses or other family members. Ministers hailed progress in reducing the disturbing number of “femicides” but also acknowledged the need for more collaboration on the issue as they signed a cooperation protocol between their ministries.
The protocol covers increased coordination between the Interior Ministry, which handles the criminal side of the issue, the Family and Social Services Ministry, which is at the forefront of efforts to provide shelter and awareness to women in danger, and the Education Ministry, which aims to educate people at a younger age to raise awareness on the issue that is still largely tied to a patriarchal mindset.
The action plan focuses on five aspects – access to justice for victims, policies and coordination, preventive and protective measures, public awareness and collecting accurate data on the issue.
Family and Social Services Minister Derya Yanık said at the meeting that successive governments of the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AK Party) implemented numerous regulations and measures to curb violence against women on the principle of “zero tolerance” in the past two decades but the process was not “complete” yet. “We will work to ensure the implementation of privacy rulings for women (to protect the identity of domestic violence victims), we will work for efficient implementation of health measures and consultation services for victims,” she said.
Yanık said the violence has become “diverse” now. “Apart from physical, psychological, economic and sexual violence, we now have virtual violence, something we need to work to prevent,” she highlighted, referring to cybercrimes targeting women, including stalking and bullying. The minister also dismissed the claims that restraining orders were scarce or not implemented well in domestic violence cases. “This is not something which can be simply prevented by implementing restraining orders for perpetrators. Unfortunately, we have seen in the past five years that about 81% of women’s murders were committed by perpetrators they did not seek restraining orders for earlier,” she said.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said they had plans underway to tackle the different aspects of the issue and among their priorities is increasing the number of women with access to KADES app from 3.4 million to 5 million. KADES, which stands for Women’s Emergency Support App, is a smartphone app that allows potential domestic violence victims to alert security forces, basically, a “panic button” with a short emergency response time. -Agencies
