Love conquers court: Man fined over ‘I don’t love you’

Issuing a landmark ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court of Appeals declared that saying "I don't love you" to a spouse amounted to emotional violence and ordered a husband to pay compensation to his wife in a divorce case.

The verdict was for a divorce case involving a couple who sought damages for insults they hurled at each other. A local court in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa looked into claims that the husband often fled home and did not care for his ailing wife.

The court ruled for rejecting payment of compensation to the woman as she was "at fault" as well in terms of insulting her husband.

The wife had claimed that her husband told her, "You don't have a right to speak. I don't love you," leaving her "emotionally wrecked." The husband in turn said his wife constantly "cursed" him.

She appealed to a local court's ruling and took the case to the 2nd Department of Supreme Court of Appeals. The top court ruled that the woman should be paid compensation as she was "subject to emotional violence" since her husband said, "I don't love you."

The Supreme Court of Appeals said in its preamble to the verdict that the husband's wrongdoing weighed more than the wife as he failed to treat his wife well and care for her along with emotional violence by his statements. The court ordered the lower court to issue another ruling on the case.

Emotional or psychological violence, which is more difficult to prove than physical violence, often goes unpunished, although it may carry a prison term of up to three years based on courts' separate interpretation of such cases.

Prevalence of domestic violence gained notoriety in Turkey when the many murders of women by their spouses found a wider coverage in the media in recent years. A report from the Family and Social Policies Ministry shows that four in every 10 women in Turkey are subjected to physical and sexual violence by their husbands, fiancés or boyfriends at least once in their life. The report said that over 17,000 women applied for police protection against abusive spouses in 2014.