A leading women’s rights organization in Turkey reported on Monday that 136 women were killed by men in the first six months of 2025, a figure lower than the number of women murdered in the same period last year, Turkish Minute reported.
The We Will Stop Femicide Platform (KCDP) on Monday released its semi-annual report on the number of women who were killed by men in the first six months of 2025 as well as 145 others who died under suspicious circumstances.
The latest figures show a decline in femicides when compared with the 2024 figures. In 2024 at least 394 women were killed by men, with 205 of these murders taking place in the first six months. The total number of women killed in 2023 was 315.
Platform spokesperson Esin İzel Uysal said the data reveal the scale of “violations of the right to life,” adding that the policies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government that prioritize family over the safety of the women are leaving women to face death.
This year’s murders took place when the Turkish government declared 2025 the Year of the Family, with the Ministry of Family and Social Services organizing events throughout the year to promote traditional family values and child welfare.
However, women rights activists have said the program reinforces traditional domestic roles rather than addressing challenges women face at home and in the workplace.
Home and family as danger zones
According to the report, 65 percent of the victims were murdered in their own homes, and 60 percent were killed by family members. The most common weapon used was a firearm, with 57 percent of the women shot to death.
Uysal said the growing role of unregulated gun sales, citing the case of 17-year-old Helin Palandöken, shot dead in 2017 with a shotgun purchased online. “The government’s failure to control gun access is costing lives,” she said.
Failures of protection and justice
Uysal also criticized Turkey’s enforcement of protective laws, noting that several women had appealed for help under Law No. 6284, which mandates protective measures for at-risk individuals, only to be murdered anyway. “These women turned to the state and said ‘Protect me,’ but meaningful protection never came,” she said.
“Even nine women under state protection were killed,” she said.
The report also points to widespread impunity for the perpetrators of domestic violence. “In many cases, perpetrators are released without questioning or are acquitted in court. This sends a dangerous message: that killing a woman comes without consequences,” Uysal warned.
The Istanbul Convention and gender inequality
Uysal said efforts to roll back Law No. 6284 and the Turkish government’s promotion of “family-centered policies” have further endangered women. “Declaring a ‘Year of the Family’ and sidelining women from public life only feeds gender inequality,” she said. “Without dismantling this mindset, the killings will not stop.”
She also criticized the exclusion of women from the labor force, noting that nearly 20 million women are not counted in employment statistics and that many young women are neither working nor in school.
“The Istanbul Convention remains a binding, international standard for Turkey,” Uysal said, despite Turkey’s withdrawal from the convention. “If we want to stop femicides, we must fully implement it.”
Despite opposition from the international community and women’s rights groups, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decided on Turkey’s withdrawal from the convention in March 2021. The treaty required governments to adopt legislation prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence and similar abuse as well as marital rape and female genital mutilation.
Turkey officially withdrew from the Istanbul Convention in July 2021.
Erdoğan claimed at the time that the treaty had been “hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality” which he said was “incompatible” with Turkey’s “social and family values.”
Families speak out
Families of victims joined the platform in calling for justice. Hüsniye Yıldırım, whose daughter Aysun died after a suspicious fall in 2018, said prosecutors have neglected the case. “They keep changing direction. The files are shelved. But we won’t walk alone.”
Activist Şirin Yalıcakoğlu talked about a pattern of suspicious deaths being classified as suicides. “Women are said to have hanged themselves in police housing, cars, even bathrooms. But these are clearly murders,” she said. “The perpetrators walk free while families are left waiting for justice.”
A 2022 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report criticized Turkey’s approach to addressing violence against women, pointing out that the government frames the issue in paternalistic terms, seeing women as needing protection rather than promoting gender equality. Emma Sinclair-Webb of HRW noted that this approach undermines efforts to effectively combat gender-based violence.
