40,000 Turkish conscripts given training on violence against women

ANKARA

Some 40,000 conscripts have been so far given a training on violence against women in a bid to raise their awareness regarding this issue, said an official of the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services.

Mustafa Çadır, a senior official at the ministry‘s directorate general on the status of women, however said that their aim was to reach 500,000 conscripts.

The training has been so far provided for conscripts serving 21 days in the military as they are exempt from the rest of their obligatory having paid a fee.

Çadır made the comments on Nov. 28 during a meeting of a parliamentary committee responsible from the implementation of the Istanbul Convention, which is formally known as The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Çadır said that the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services was conducting cooperation with various institutions regarding the issue of violence against women, including the Defense Ministry and the Directorate of Religious Affairs (“Diyanet”).

“We have so far given a training to 40,000 conscripts. Our target is to reach above 500,000 conscripts. In our awareness raising trainings, our experts are explaining the issue in a simple way such that everyone can understand,” said Çadır.

As for Diyanet, the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services has provided a training for 1,000 clerics, according to Çadır. The official said the clerics were then conveying what they have learned at the trainings to the locals of the areas where they were working at.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP Hülya Nergis has also taken the floor during meeting, saying: “The problems are not solved in one day. With our works, we will determine the issues that raise a problem regarding the prevention of violence against women. We’ll listen to representatives of the relevant institutions as well as experts. If a new law needs to be adopted, we can also talk about that.”

Violence against women is a recurrent issue in Turkey, where several hundred femicides are recorded each year.

Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu (We Will Stop Femicides Platform), an association that monitors cases of violence against women, counted 409 murders of women or girls last year and 328 in 2016.