Mother saved by police’s domestic abuse helpline app

ISTANBUL

Istanbul police saved the life of a woman, who asked for help over a mobile application designed especially for victims of domestic violence, while her husband was holding a gun to her head.

Just three minutes after Ayşegül Geçim, 28, pressed the help button on the KADES app, police flocked to her house in the Gaziosmanpaşa district and “neutralized” İsmail Güneş, 35, by shooting him in the elbow.

“No woman should be silent toward domestic violence. Use KADES or go to the police. But do not retreat. I want him to be punished,” Geçim told Demirören News Agency on Dec. 7, a day after her husband attempted to kill her.

KADES, formed by the first two syllables of the Turkish words, “Kadın” (Woman) and “Destek” (Support), is a mobile application by the Interior Ministry to protect women and children. Anyone who gives personal details to the app enters the police or gendarmerie’s protection list.

“He has a lot of criminal records. He beat me for years. I kept silent for my children. But not anymore,” she said and added: “If I did not use KADES and police did not come, I would be dead by now.”