Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has praised what he called a sharp decline in femicides this year, even as official data show that 217 women were killed by men in the first 10 months alone, Turkish Minute reported, citing the Anka news agency.
Yerlikaya presented the figures during a parliamentary budget session on Monday, telling lawmakers that femicides had fallen 25 percent compared to the same period last year. According to ministry data, 290 women were killed in the first 10 months of 2024, compared to 217 this year.
“While violence against women is rising around the world, this rate is not increasing in Turkey; on the contrary, it shows a downward trend,” Yerlikaya said during meeting. “Yes, femicides fell by 73 cases, but this is not a matter of statistics. Each is a wound that never heals.”
Women’s rights groups, however, have long warned that Turkey’s official statistics mask the scope of the problem, noting that hundreds of suspicious female deaths are not classified as femicides.
According to data from the We Will Stop Femicides Platform, the number of women killed by men in the first 10 months of 2025 is 235, while 247 others died under suspicious circumstances.
Rights groups also say the government continues to downplay the impact of withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention, the landmark treaty to combat violence against women.
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.”
Public anger reignited by photo linked to Şule Çet case
Yerlikaya’s remarks came at a time when a widely circulated photograph reignited debate over the 2018 killing of university student Şule Çet, whose death sparked mass protests and became a symbol of Turkey’s struggle with gender-based violence.
The photo shows Berk Akand, who was sentenced to almost 19 years for aiding the main suspect, Çağatay Aksu, posing with his girlfriend at a restaurant. Akand responded to comments below the post with “Alayına inat hoş buldum” (I’m back despite everything), leading to speculation that he had been released.
His lawyer said the photo was taken during a scheduled leave from an open prison in Aksaray in central Turkey two months ago. Akand is expected to be released in June 2027.
Şule Çet’s family lawyer, Umur Yıldırım, told Turkish media that inmates sentenced to more than 10 years must first serve more than seven years in a closed facility before becoming eligible for transfer to an open prison and temporary leave.
The Justice Ministry also issued a statement saying Akand had been transferred to an open prison on June 5 but remains in custody. The ministry also said Akand was disciplined over the social media post he shared while on leave from the open prison and that his status there was revoked, leading to his transfer back to a closed facility.
Çet, 23, fell to her death from the 20th floor of a high-rise in Ankara on May 29, 2018, after meeting with her employer, Aksu, and his friend Akand. An investigation into her death later found out that Çet had been sexually assaulted and thrown from the building.
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.
