At least 400 women victims of domestic violence every day; 393 killed in less than two years

For the first time, Turkey’s Interior Ministry released data on violence against women for 2017-2018. Two women are killed in domestic violence incidents every three days.


Istanbul (AsiaNews) – At least 400 Turkish women have victims of domestic violence every day for the 2017-2018 period, this according to Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu who provided the number in a response to a written question by a Member of Parliament.

In all 133,809 women were victims of domestic violence in 2017.  In the first seven months of 2018, 96,417 women suffered the same fate. During that same period, 393 lost their lives.

Nothing of this is new; but is new is that for the first time these figures are provided by the government. A site dedicated to the problem is Bianet, which has published statistics on this subject several times.

In fact, until recently, such information usually came from women’s rights groups or NGOs. One such group is Bianet, which has released several statistics in the past. À

According to Bianet, some 420 women and girls were killed in domestic violence during the same period, 8 per cent more than the Interior Ministry data would suggest. Whatever the number, this means that about two women are killed every three days.

In his statement, Minister Soylu stressed that the government has centres for preventing and following violence to help women and is in the process of formulating a national plan to fight violence against women.