Turkey sees hundreds femicides the year it quit treaty on violence against women

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Hundreds of women were killed in Turkey in 2021, the same year Ankara officially withdrew from an international treaty for combatting violence against women, a media outlet reported late Wednesday.

At least 342 women were killed over the past year, an estimated increase of 40 murders compared to 2020, the independent Turkish news outlet Bianet said in a recent report. 

Thirty four women were killed in December alone, with Antalya province seeing the highest number of murders, it added.

The rise in femicide in Turkey comes as Turkey officially quit the Istanbul Convention in July last year. The landmark agreement, signed by 45 countries and the European Union, requires governments to adopt legislation prosecuting domestic violence and gender-based abuse as well as marital rape and female genital mutilation.

Conservatives within Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party pushed for the withdrawal, claiming the convention damaged family unity, promoted divorce and acceptance of the LGBT community.

Among the December murders is one of a trans woman, Bianet noted. 

However, a Turkish monitoring group, the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, raised the toll of murdered women in Turkey to 497 in a report published on Tuesday.

Around 280 of the women were allegedly killed by men, while 217 were found “suspiciously dead,” the monitor said. 

Erdogan in early July announced a new action plan to combat violence against, saying women will be “even stronger” under the new plan. 

The plan, which is expected to last through 2025, is set to “raise awareness on influencing and changing society's perspective on violence against women and increasing their sensitivity,” he said a day after Turkey departed from the treaty.

Ankara announced its intention to withdraw from the convention with a presidential decree in March, met with international condemnation from the United Nations, women’s rights activists, and world leaders, including US President Joe Biden. Thousands of women also protested against the withdrawal.