More than 1,100 women killed in five years across Turkey

ISTANBUL

More than 1,100 women have been killed by men over the past five years across Turkey, according to an interactive map on a website dedicated to keeping track of victims of femicide in the country.
The website, www.kadincinayetleri.org, displays an interactive map of Turkey with detailed data about 1,134 femicide victims during the period of 2010 to 2015, along with a list of victims and links to newspaper stories about their murders. The data was collected by journalist Ceyda Ulukaya.

In 608 cases, the murderers were husbands or ex-husbands of the victims. In 213 cases, the murderers were related to the victim and included fathers, sons, brothers, sons-in-law, fathers-in-law and other male relatives. 

According to the data, 161 women were killed by boyfriends and ex-boyfriends. 

Istanbul was the city with the most women murdered, with 169 women killed over the five year period. The city's Ümraniye and Bağcılar districts were the worst place on Istanbul’s map, with 13 women killed in the each district in the given period. The districts of Küçükçekmece and Fatih followed with 11 murders.
The Western province of İzmir followed Istanbul in the number of female murders, with some 79 women reportedly killed in the city. İzmir’s Konak and Karabağlar districts had the most killings, with 11 women killed in each of these districts within five years.

Ankara, the capital of Turkey, has seen 68 femicides. Out of these, 17 took place in the Keçiören district while 10 took place in the Çankaya district.  

Adana came fourth with 65 women killed. Some 24 women were killed in Adana’s Seyhan district, while 14 others were murdered in the Çukurova district. 

Women were reported as being killed for reasons such as “dying their hair red,” “buying a new dress,” “not cooking potato croquettes,” “not passing the salt,” or “just being irritating.” 

Out of these murders, 234 incidents took place during separation or divorce proceedings. 

In 141 cases, the women applied to a public institution demanding protection from assault and/or threats. In 217 cases, there were systematic violent assault and/or verbal threats before the murders took place. 

The November 25 Women Platform has called on the country’s women to attend a rally scheduled to take place on İstiklal Avenue in the heart of Istanbul starting 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Violence against women is a worldwide problem, according to the U.N. One in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence (most frequently from an intimate partner), the U.N. said in a report released on Nov. 6. 

Around 4.5 million people are victims of forced sexual exploitation and some 98 percent of them are women and girls, according to the U.N.