Main opposition CHP to set up domestic violence hotline

ANKARA

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The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has announced that it will set up a helpline to protect women from violence and will provide assistance to victims of violence through local governments.

“We have established a call center in our headquarters. We will embrace all the women subject to violence and we will be their voice. ‘You are not alone, we are with you’ is our slogan,” Aylin Nazlıaka, the head of the CHP women’s branch, told a meeting held by Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu over the weekend.

Nazlıaka said they launched the Life-Right Project for women in a bid to remind their right to life. “Legal assistance as a result of our cooperation with the bar associations will be granted to women who have been subject to violence. We will also follow their cases in court,” she said.

Psychological support will also be given and close cooperation with women’s associations will be made, Nazlıaka stated, suggesting a detailed study on a map of violence against women in Turkey will be accomplished to better analyze the situation.

There is an increase in the number of femicide, and immediate measures should be taken, she stressed.

Women should press for more quota

Kılıçdaroğlu, for his part, advised women’s associations to put pressure on all political parties to increase the quota for their representation regardless of their political orientation.

“I have two expectations from the women living in this country,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. “I defend your rights, but you should defend your own rights, too. You have to raise your voice for gender quota in political parties’ law. You should tell them ‘No vote for those who don’t accept that’.”

Kılıçdaroğlu said he met with all 306 women associations and advised them to be more active in politics. The CHP implements a 33 percent gender quota, he suggested.