477 women were killed in 2018 in Turkey: NGO

ISTANBUL

Women groups distributed leaflets in Istanbul's Beşiktaş district to invite women to the 17th of the Feminist Night March on the iconic İstiklal Avenue on March 8.

A staggering 477 women were killed and another 232 were injured at the hands of violent men in Turkey in 2018, according a report prepared by the Umut (Hope) Foundation, a prominent NGO dedicated to reducing personal gun ownership, ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8.

Of this number, 120 were killed with guns, 89 with rifles, 132 with sharp objects, while the remaining 136 were either choked or beaten to death, the report said, basing the figures on news reports.

“In 2015, a total of 414 women murders, 309 of whom were killed by weapons or tools, reflected on the media, while in 2018, some 477 women deaths were reflected,” the NGO said in its annual report, adding that in the last four years a total of 1,760 femicide cases had been covered in Turkish news.

When the deaths were analyzed by Turkey’s regions, the Marmara region came first, with a total of 141 deaths in 2018, marking an increase of 18 percent compared to the previous year. The same region had recorded 120 women deaths in 2017, the report said. Istanbul came first in the number of femicide cases in 2018, with a total of 82 deaths, followed by the northwestern province of Bursa with 22 deaths.

The Mediterranean region came second in the number of femicide cases, with 87 deaths, followed by the Central Anatolian region.

The number of women deaths showed a decrease in the country’s southeastern and Black Sea provinces compared to the previous years, the report said.

The NGO also gave numbers on the number of foreign women killed in 2018. Of the 43 foreign women killed in 2018, some 21 were Syrians, three were Afghans, three were Georgians, three were Kyrgyz, three were Azeri, two were Iranians, two were Moldavians, two were Turkmens, and two were Iraqis. The remaining six were from Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Germany.

Apart from these 43 victims, another seven foreign nationals were injured by men.

The women were either victims of their husbands, brothers, or another male relative.

There were also others who were killed brutally for wanting to break up from their boyfriends or not wanting to form a romantic relationship with men who made advances.

According to figures provided by an NGO which keeps a tally of femicides across the country, some 440 women were killed in Turkey in 2018.

Some 440 women were killed just in 2018, a report by Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu (We Will Stop Femicide Platform) previously had stressed.

Of this number, 131 were logged as “shady deaths,” in which there is no blatant connection between the cause or reason and the death. But women’s rights groups have long blamed authorities for failing these women by ignoring circumstances and factors that may have led to the murders.

Meanwhile, women’s rights organizations have called on Turkish women to attend an Istanbul rally on Istanbul’s iconic İstiklal Avenue to mark International Women’s Day.

Thousands of women are expected to flock to central Istanbul demanding greater women’s rights and denouncing violence against women.