Minister Soylu slams male violence: ‘Shame on you’

* Photo: yeni1mecra, İzmir (Police violence against women protesting Turkey's possible withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention)

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Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu delivered a speech at the Struggle Against Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women Evaluation Meeting in the Police Academy Anıttepe Campus today (November 23).

According to the latest Male Violence Monitoring Report compiled by bianet from the press, men killed 23 women, inflicted violence on at least 80 women and killed at least four children in October 2020.

Soylu said the following about male violence:

'We have the capacity to follow all incident'

"It has been understood that 90 percent of the women murdered in the first six months of 2020 had not applied to law enforcement.

"I would like to indicate that we are faced with serious misinformation. We have nearly 500 thousand law enforcement officers. We have an organization reaching out to every part of Turkey. We have the capacity to momentarily follow all incidents falling within the scope of Law no. 6284 [on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women].

'We remain captives due to wrong numbers'

"(Feminicides) There is also a mindset that does not trust us about these numbers and compiles them from newspaper clippings.

"We bend over backwards to ensure that there is no violence. A considerable part of our ministries have mobilized for this.

"We receive these numbers every morning. 'Can we reduce them? Where do we fall short,' we ask ourselves. We all do our share. We almost ramp and rage, asking how this can happen. We act meticulously, but due to wrong numbers, we unfortunately remain captives to a group of people who are themselves captives to politics and ideology.

"Why would we announce wrong numbers? When it increases, we say that it increases, share the numbers and sound the alarm. We motivate our friends when it declines. ... I wonder what those who accuse us as if we committed all feminicides in Turkey are doing themselves. I wonder what they do apart from only accusing and political violence.

"We are begging [women] to download KADES [panic button mobile application for women], thinking that maybe we can prevent violence in one family. I feel sorry for those who are captives to an ideological mindset in the 21st century, when everything is transparent and everything is followed up, and who want to trip up through this issue.

'I call on men: Come to your senses'

"In 2016, it was 304; in 2019, it was 336. As of November 20 this year, 234 women lost their lives in murders within the scope of violence against women. In the first 10 months of last year, this number was 234. There has been a 24-percent decrease, but even one is too many for us.

"I am calling on men: Come to your senses. You might be physically strong, but what kind of a shame is that? What do you satisfy? What do you prove? What do you ensure? What feeling of yours do you glorify? Shame on you.

"This issue has a legal side to it; but, in our society, there is something that our moms have been telling us since our childhood, 'What a shame, don't do it ever again'." (AS/SD)