317 women killed with weapons in Turkey in 2016: Report

ISTANBUL

Eight percent of the 397 women who were killed in Turkey last year were murdered with weapons, according to statistics from the Umut Foundation, which was established with the sole purpose of battling individual armed violence in Turkey. 

A total of 317 women were killed with weapons in 2016, a slight increase over the 309 women killed with weapons – out of a total of 413 – in 2015.

According to the statistics gathered from information obtained by national and local media reports, one in two women in Turkey is subjected to violence either by their husbands or the men they live with. 

In many cases, women do not seek help from the authorities because they see little use in doing so. There are also cases in which women have applied to authorities but have been returned home and forced to reconcile with their partners before being subjected to even more violence.

Twenty percent of the women were either beaten to death, choked or thrown from a high place in 2016. 
Some 85 percent of the femicides were committed by husbands, boyfriends, former husbands and boyfriends whom women were attempting to separate themselves from.

A total of 96 of femicides were committed with rifles, 90 with pistols, eight with service pistols and 123 with sharp objects, such as knives, chopping knives, axes and adzes. 

On a monthly basis, February witnessed the highest number of femicides with 41 cases, of which 31 were with weapons. The second on the list was January with 40 women’s murders, 36 of which were with weapons. The fewest number of murders was recorded in May, with 27 femicides, 23 of which were conducted with weapons. 

Some 35 women were killed in March and October, 34 in August, 33 in July, 33 in September, 31 in June, 31 in December, 29 in November and 28 in April. 

The first incidents in 2016 were in the southern province of Osmaniye and the western province of Aydın. In Osmaniye, a man raided the house of his former wife and killed his 28-year-old daughter with a rifle on Jan. 1, 2016. In Aydın’s Didim district, a man stabbed his former wife, Sultan Sarı, to death. 

The last reports of femicide in 2016 came from the eastern province of Van, the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, Istanbul, the western province of İzmir and the southern province of Antalya. 

Istanbul topped the list with the number of femicides, followed by İzmir, the southern provinces of Adana and Antalya, Ankara, the southeastern province of Gaziantep and Aydın. 

There were 16 provinces in which no femicides were reported, namely, Ardahan, Bartın, Bilecik, Bingöl, Çanakkale, Çankırı, Gümüşhane, Kilis, Muş, Nevşehir, Niğde, Rize, Siirt, Sinop, Şırnak and Tunceli.

When the number of femicide incidents was examined on a regional basis, the Marmara region topped the list with 78 cases. The Aegean followed with 76 cases, after which came the Mediterranean with 64 cases,

 Southeast Anatolia with 59, Central Anatolia with 48, the Black Sea with 45 and East Anatolia with 28. However, when the per capita death ratio is examined, the Mediterranean tops the list.

The Umut Foundation collects statistics on women’s murders to provide information to politicians, nongovernmental organizations and scholars who wish to stop the increasing trend of violence against women in Turkey.