Turkey: Femicide down 22% in first quarter of year

By Muhammed Nuri Erdogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's femicide rate has decreased by 22% in the first quarter of the year compared to last year, the country's Interior Ministry announced on Friday.

According to the statement, 64 women were murdered over the past three months, while in January-March 2019, 82 had been killed.

The ministry said this decrease was the result of its struggle against violence towards women and domestic violence, conducting research and instituting preventative measures against perpetrators to protect women who had been victims.

As part of this struggle, 157,367 such preventive measures had been placed in the first three months of 2020, up 66% from 94,852 in the same period last year.

Also, while 11,419 women were placed under protection in the first three months of 2019, this rose to 20,784 in 2020 -- an 82% rise.

During November 2019 until March 2020 107,419 security forces were trained to fight violence against women and domestic violence.

The statement added that due to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, training continued online, with some 250,000 personnel to be trained by the end of the year.