Panic button to prevent abuses in Turkey

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

This file photo shows women staging a protest against violence in Ankara. DAILY NEWS photo

A new project to combat domestic violence in Turkey will be started in two cities at the end of August. 
A panic button pilot project will be implemented by the Ministry of Family and Social Policies and Ministry of Interior in the northwestern province of Bursa and southern province Adana as the first step.

Panic buttons will be available to women local courts order protection for, said Sevim Taşdelen, press consultant of the Ministry of Family and Social Policies.

“The panic button will be disguised as jewelry, a phone or a watch,” Taşdelen told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday in a phone interview.

The ministries have concluded their work on the proposed project, which will also provide electronic monitoring bracelets for men who commit violence. 

Call-center system

The panic buttons will be integrated into a call-center system in order to implement the projects more effectively. 

The ministries made an agreement with the GSM Company Avea to transfer the calls from the buttons to the 155 police emergency line, she said.

Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin also said the “Alo 183” phone line, which was developed to combat domestic violence, would be restructured, and an agreement on the line had been made with Turkcell, adding that the officials working in these call centers would receive special training according to a report published yesterday by daily Zaman.

The call centers will be opened in Gaziantep, a total of 120 people will work at the center, and the contract procedures have been completed, the report said.

“The projects will be implemented particularly in provinces with strong infrastructure and high migration rates. As part of the project, testing will be conducted in Adana and Bursa just after Ramadan. We will assume all the charges and provide the necessary equipment for the project,” Şahin said. 

Şahin also announced that the civil servants at these two ministries were working on the regulations for the implementation law and that it would be presented to the Council of Ministers in a few days. 

Şahin also stated that such projects were implemented with great success in countries such as Britain, Germany and the U.S. She said Turkish civil servants had observed their implementation and adapted them for Turkey.

Şahin’s press adviser Taşdelen said they planned to implement the project across Turkey in a year.