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Thousands march in Turkish cities to protest child abuse
Thousands march in Turkish cities to protest child abuse
Thousands of people took to the streets in three western Turkish cities, including Istanbul, on July 3 and July 4 to protest recent cases of sexual abuse and murders of children. Click through for the story in photos...
The “Don’t Touch My Child” march attracted around 15,000 people in Bursa on July 3, according to the Demirören News Agency. The protest continued for two hours. “Mothers and fathers should not cry for their children anymore,” the protest’s spokesperson Esra Yalçın Ünal told journalists. “No more Eylüls and Leylas,” she said.
Eylül Yağlıkara, 8, was found dead on June 1, buried by an electricity pole after a week of comprehensive searches conducted by the authorities. One suspect was detained and an autopsy report revealed that the girl had been sexually abused.
In a second killing that also shocked Turkey, four-year-old Leyla Aydemir was found dead on July 2 in a shallow creek in the eastern province of Ağrı on July 2, 18 days after she was reported as missing. She died of starvation, according to initial reports. Officials point to a possible kidnapping, but the case has not been solved now.
In Balıkesir, another western Turkish province, local protests organized by the “Independent Women Initiative” marched in the city center on July 3. Nebahat Gülhan, the protest’s spokesperson, called for “harsher penalties” in cases of violence against women, children and animals.
Another march was held in Istanbul’s Taksim neighborhood on the evening of July 4.
“We will bring the heaviest legal penalties in sexual abuse cases,” Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül told reporters on July 4 in response to protests. “Our government had already prepared a bill and it would become law in the new term.”
A total of 104,531 children were reported officially missing between 2008 and 2016, according to judicial statistics released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), daily Birgün reported on July 3.
In 2016, the Interior Ministry was quoted as stating that around 15,900 children remained lost following an inspection proposal made by a deputy from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in parliament.
No official data for 2017 or 2018 has been made available by the authorities. In response to a question raised by independent MP Aylin Nazlıaka about how many children went missing in 2017, the ministry instead gave the number of children found: 11,691.
Photos: Demirören News Agency
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