News Center- The We Will Stop Femicide Platform (KCDP) has announced its “2021 Annual Data Report”. According to the report, 280 women were killed by men, 217 more died under suspicious circumstances in Turkey in 2021. The platform emphasizes in its report that one of the important developments regarding the lives of all women, children, and LGBTIQ+ people in 2021 was Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention. “We protested Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention across Turkey. Turkey withdrew from the convention at midnight but it will remain in our lives. Our achievements cannot be destroyed by a man's arbitrary practice. We are the Istanbul Convention and we will keep talking about how it is important,” the platform says in the report.

Drawing attention to the ongoing economic crisis in Turkey, the platform says, “In the last quarter of 2021, the economic crisis was the most important agenda in the country. The Turkish lira lost value against dollars. The loss of value causes price hikes. While citizens take to the streets every day to protest the worsening living conditions, the authorities talk about how the Turkish economy is good. Women are badly affected by the consequences of the economic crisis. Some women don’t receive equal pay for equal work.”

The Ministry shares unstable data

Criticizing the speech of Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu in April, the platform says, “He said ‘Femicides have decreased after withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention. He also claimed that the number of femicide has decreased in the last 5-6 years. In his speech, he also announced that the number of femicides in 2021 would be higher than the previous year. He first claimed that the number of femicides was decreased but then he said that the number of femicides would be higher than the previous year. The ministry shares unstable and contradictory data.”

Emphasizing the increasing number of suspicious deaths of women, the platform says in the report, “The perpetrators are aware that they can no longer legitimize femicides so they try to cover up the murders of women. No effective investigation and legal proceedings are carried out regarding the murders of women that have been recorded as suspicious deaths. The perpetrators, who are aware that the authorities don’t fulfill their duties, try to show murders of women as suspicious deaths. We keep asking “What happened” about the suspicious deaths of women. We will continue to ask these questions. We have no intention of allowing any femicide to be recorded as suspicious.

280 women were killed in 2021

According to the report, 33 of the 280 killed women had previously filed a complaint with the police or the prosecutor's office or received a protection order. “33 women were killed by male violence as a result of the authorities' failure to fulfill their duties, although they applied to them to be protected. We do not even know how many of these officials have been prosecuted. While the authorities do not protect the women who apply to them, the Minister of Interior claims that femicides have decreased.”

“Those who try to prevent femicides are killed”

Stating that dozens of their friends were detained for using their constitutional rights (protest) and lawsuits were filed against them, the platform says, “Unconstitutionally, law enforcement acts immediately as women struggle to stop femicides. The murders of 33 women after applying to the authorities to be protected prove that law enforcement officers don’t act with the same ‘meticulousness’ about the lives of women. In 2021, 20 women were killed by their relatives. 17 people were injured while trying to prevent femicides. Those who try to prevent femicides are killed or injured. In 2021, 280 women were killed by men. 124 of them were killed by their husbands, 37 by their partners, 24 by men they knew, 21 by their ex-husbands or partners, 16 by their relatives, 13 by their ex-boyfriends, 13 by their fathers, 11 by their sons, 6 by their brothers, 3 by a stranger, 1 by someone stalking her, 11 by unknown men.”

“Most women were killed at their home”

The report also includes the places where women were killed. “178 women were killed at home, 33 on the streets, 12 in a field, 10 at their workplace, 9 in cars, 8 in an isolated place, 6 in a hotel, 2 at the entrance of their apartment, 2 in a park, 1 in a coal yard, 1 in a shed, 1 in front of a school, 1 in a minibus, 1 in the toilet outside her house, 1 in the law office, 1 in a factory, 1 in a car park, 1 in front of her house, 1 in the yard of a health center. The places, where 10 women were killed, haven’t been determined. In 2021, 64 percent of women were killed at home.”