Major judicial incidents declined in 2020, says minister

ISTANBUL

A number of judicial incidents, including burglary, femicide, drug crimes, and traffic accidents, have declined, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has said.

Nearly 4,890 people were killed in road accidents in Turkey in 2020, down from some 5,473 deaths in 2019.

“With the measures, inspections, trainings, improving roads, technological and emergency health response capacity and with the attention of our nation, deaths in traffic accidents has dropped from 13.4 per hundred thousand to 5.9 in the last 10 years,” Soylu said in a post he shared on Twitter.

“The death rate in 2020 stood at the lowest compared to the last 10 years,” Soylu added.

Over the past 10 years, the highest casualties in traffic accidents were recorded in 2015, with 7,500 deaths.

Drug

Increasing crackdown on drugs has helped Turkey to deal with “narco-terrorism” as the minister has revealed the latest figures related to drug seizures.

Soylu said security forces seized 114 million cannabis plants and 87 tons of marijuana in 2019, with a street value of 23 billion Turkish Liras ($3 billion) in more than 158,000 anti-drug operations.

According to the information given by Soylu, 229,156 people were detained for drug-related crimes in 2020, while 23,693 people were arrested.

Speaking about drug-related deaths, Soylu said 175 people died in 2020, while the death toll was 941 in 2017.

Femicides

Soylu stated that with the struggle, the number of femicides decreased by 21 percent.

In his Twitter post, Soylu noted that 266 women murdered in 2020 were considered as cases of femicide under Law No. 6284, while the number was 336 in 2019.

The graphic shared by the minister also included the information that the Women’s Support Application (KADES) was downloaded by 1.3 million people and more than 68,000 notices were received.

However, according to figures provided by Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu (We Will Stop Femicide Platform), which keeps a tally of femicides across the country, 300 women were killed by men in Turkey throughout 2020.

The deaths of 171 women were recorded as “suspicious deaths” while the perpetrators of the majority of the murdered women were again their relatives.

Speaking to daily Milliyet, platform representative Ayşen Ece Kavas stated that the number of victims has increased periodically since 2011, the year the Istanbul Convention, officially known as the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, was signed.

Burglary

Meanwhile, burglaries in Turkey have dropped 10 percent this year, Soylu noted.

“The daily average of house breakings has decreased to 158 in 2020,” Soylu said, adding that the number was 172 in 2019.

While the rate of theft incidents solved was 22.6 percent in 2015, this rate increased to 38 percent in 2020.