Turkish PM calls for an end to violence against women

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has called for a "multidimensional fight" to end violence against women, describing the issue as a "global problem".

Speaking at a UN-backed meeting in Istanbul on Wednesday, Davutoglu said that the matter was a worldwide problem in every country, nation and religion.

Davutoglu was addressing the opening ceremony of a two-day meeting entitled ‘Ending Violence against Women: Building on Progress to Accelerate Change’.

Around 150 high-level representatives from UN member countries and the Council of Europe as well as NGOs and academics are meeting to discuss a comprehensive way of combating violence against women.

According to the UN, one-in-three women around the world suffer from violence, most of the time from someone they are close to.

Almost half of the women killed each year are done so by their partner or a member of their family.

Noting that women are suffering in every part of the world, Davutoglu said: "Women are suffering most of the time as a result of decisions made by men."

Davutoglu said that Turkey was hosting more than two million Syrian refugees -- most of which are women and children, adding that Ankara would assist any call for help from any part of the world.

Speaking at the same event, Turkey’s Minister for Family and Social Policies Sema Ramazanoglu said that the country was taking legal measures to prevent violence against women and to protect victims.

Earlier in December a Turkish court handed down an aggravated life imprisonment sentence to three people accused of the brutal murder of 20-year old university student Ozgecan Aslan in February.

Aslan was killed on Feb. 13 while she reportedly resisted a sexual assault in a minibus in Mersin, southern Turkey. Later, the attackers burnt her body; her charred remains were found two days after she was reported missing.

Aslan’s death caused an outcry in Turkey where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the killers would be punished with the heaviest penalty.

This year’s Istanbul Marathon was held with the theme: ‘End Violence Against Women’.

Last month, a Turkish journalist developed an interactive online map that gives detailed data on women murder victims between 2010 and 2015.

Today’s meeting -- which was also addressed by UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka -- was held 20 years after Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action-Violence against Women which was adopted by 189 countries.