In the last 14 years, the peak number of women deaths due to violence was seen in 2017, with 408 women lost to murder. The lowest number was seen in 2011, the year that Türkiye signed the Istanbul Convention. It is important to note that the Istanbul Convention played a significant role in protecting women in Türkiye. Ever since Türkiye withdrew from the convention in 2021, the number of women deaths have increased by twenty percent.
Esin İzel Uysal, a lawyer from the Platform to Stop Femicide, stated that the reason for the increase in suspicious deaths of women is the lack of effective investigations. In suspicious deaths of women, what stands out the most is that women die after falling from a height, in other words, they are killed by being thrown. The women “falling” and dying creates a whole new suspicion in the category of femicide, and the rising number of deaths related to falling creates fear among women living in high buildings.
Generally, women feel under threat more than ever. Especially after the current news regarding the death of women in the weekend of 5-6 October, Türkiye has encountered a vast number of deaths and the reactions have risen on the issue. The crowded protests in various cities are trying to raise awareness on the severity of the issue.
The investigation into the murder of Ayşenur Halil and İknal Uzuner that took place in Fatih, Istanbul is still continuing. It was determined that all data on the computer of the murderer Semih Çelik was deleted except for the video in which he talked about killing İkbal Uzuner and suicide. Police teams continue to analyze evidence related to the murder. The father of the murderer said that when they entered their son’s room, Semih used to immediately turn off his computer, which had a password so his parents would not able to see what he was doing on it.
The murder of the little girl Narin and the other femicide cases did not have any effective updates, despite some additional investigations on the suspects of the crimes. The Narin case had improved with the detail that the major suspects were actually the parents of Narin and that similar cases were seen in the village that they live in, including Narin’s sister.
Further steps should be taken both by the society and the government, as we have encountered a major increase in the number of femicide and other criminal cases in Türkiye in the months of September and October.
The investigations are continuing on many of the femicides that happened in the month of October, and the protests are becoming even more widespread day by day.
Edited by: Ömer Gökce, Oya Yamaç