We are surrounded with violence

Since the beginning of 2017, at least 364 women were killed in Turkey. According to the data from the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, 121 women were killed in 2011. In the last 16 years, the ratio of women murders has increased more than 200%.

Women have been battered, kidnapped for sexual violence, raped, threatened with death, stabbed and shot.

This year, they were attacked more than previous years because of lifestyle, for wearing clothing that reveal skin, shorts or smoking cigarettes.

There was even one man on the street who put out his cigarette on the neck of a woman he did not know.

Almost 53,000 women are under temporary protection in Turkey for being subject to violence. This year, 350 women on average each month have gone to the police for being subject to violence.

Children face all kinds of violence at home, at school and in dorms, ranging from being beaten to abuse.

We see mothers and fathers who torture their own children.

A father who tortures his eight-year-old son by tying his hands and feet, a mother who bashes up her three-year-old daughter, a mother who batters her stepson for taking one Turkish Lira from home to buy a gift for Mother’s Day, the owner of a kindergarten who locks a two-and-a-half-year-old child and beats them, a hairdresser who beats his nine-year-old apprentice until he bruises, a mother who drags his six-year-old son by tying him with a rope to a car…

The list goes on like this.

Only considering the incidents that have been reflected in the press, 346 children were abused in 2017. It is impossible to imagine the number of incidents of abuse that have not been reflected in the press or by judicial authorities and that have been left behind closed doors.

Violence against animals, the weakest link in society, has reached an incredible dimension.

A coachman who leaves his horse who died of thirst in the middle of the road and runs away, those who attack cat houses, those who kick the water vessels left outside for stray animals, those who burn dog houses, those who rape cats and hang them from their legs to a tree, those who kill stray cats by shooting them, those who shoot flamingos and cut their throats, those who burn stray animals…

According to the Animal Rights Watch Committee (HAKİM), 23,000 animals were tortured only in 2016. Those who were tortured under tests and those who suffer from psychological and physical torture while being transported domestically are not included in this figure.

According to the Umut Foundation, 1,722 people were killed in 2,765 armed incidents that happened in the first 10 months of 2017 and 2,874 people were injured.

It is believed that in Turkey, 85 percent of 25 million individual arms are unlicensed. The use of firearms in individual crimes is close to 80%.

The tendency for violence is increasing both at home and on the streets in our country.

Even those who have not been subjected to violence have felt social violence.

This does not have only one reason but many. However, not taking precaution and not giving punishment are the most important reasons.

In women murders, trials without arrest and remission are almost like a gift for men.

Selling arms and buying licenses are too easy on individual arming.

A law that sees animals as lives and not as objects and will prevent criminals from being freed with fines has not yet been enacted.

The steps that need to be taken for these issues are clear.

How much more do we need to shout, “Enough!”?