Despite public awareness campaigns, increased coverage in media and heavier sentences to perpetrators, the recorded number of women who have died due to violence has increased by 7.5 percent to reach 440 in Turkey.
The figures released Monday in the annual report of the "We Will Stop Femicide Platform" showed that the number of murders with unidentified assailants also increased to 131 in the same period, amounting to 37 percent of all cases, with the victims' bodies found near dams, lakes or roadsides.
Husbands constituted 27 percent of the assailants, with relatives following at 13 percent and partners at 5 percent. Overall, husbands, partners, ex-husbands or partners committed 85 percent of femicides.
The cause behind 30 percent of the murders could not be identified while another 30 percent of the cases remained "suspicious". Some 24 percent of the women were murdered "for wanting to make decisions regarding their own lives."
The report said that firearms were used in 40 percent of the murders and the rise in individual armament was important in these cases. Firearms were followed by knives and sharp objects at 18 percent and 6 percent of the victims were strangled to death.
The report also recorded that 317 women and 1,217 children were sexually abused last year. At least 142 women were subjected to sexual abuse by men they didn't know in public areas such as streets or public transportation. Schools, dormitories and their own homes were the primary locations where children were subjected to sexual abuse. In 2018, 26 children were killed and fathers were the perpetrators in half of these cases.
The group, which was founded in 2009, keeps regular tallies of women who fall victim to male violence. According to their data, 237 women were killed in 2013, 294 in 2014, 303 in 2015, 328 in 2016 and 409 in 2017. In addition to deaths, thousands more are believed to have been injured.
The report said that Law 6284 on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women, a landmark legislation adopted in 2011, was not being implemented effectively.
