Failure to operate existing mechanisms and the policy of impunity causes violence and massacres against women to increase day by day. According to JINNEWS' violence tally, at least 320 women were murdered in 2023, while 189 women died suspiciously. In the first 4 months of 2024, at least 120 women were murdered and at least 71 women died suspiciously. According to the data of the We Will Stop Femicide Platform (KCDP), there were at least 315 femicides in 2023, and at least 248 women died suspiciously. While at least 124 women were murdered in the first 4 months of the year, at least 72 women died under suspicious circumstances.

 

THEY WERE MURDERED DESPITE THE 'PROTECT' DECISION

 

Women are being massacred in plain sight, even though they resort to every means they can to survive. In the past weeks, at least 4 women were murdered by men against whom they filed a complaint and obtained a protection order. These women, who were murdered while seeking justice everywhere, from the police station to the corridors of the courthouse, are as follows:

 

* In Aydın's Sultanhisar district, Aylin Beijing was murdered with a firearm in front of her house on May 13 by Mehmet Şah Yeşilova, to whom she filed a complaint for persistently following and disturbing her.

 

*Bahar Torun took a restraining order against Burak Acar in Adana. However, Burak Acar murdered Bahar Torun by breaking the electronic handcuff on May 13. 

* On May 14, in Izmir's Selçuk district, Birkan Ekren murdered his divorcee Sevim Duman. It was learned that Duman had previously filed a complaint against Ekren for threats and insults and had a 1-month restraining order against him.

 

* Bahar Kaban, who filed a complaint against Gökhan Y. due to the threats she received in the Küçükçekmece district of Istanbul, was murdered on May 16.”

 

Halise Dakalı, member of the Women's Commission of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) Amed Branch, made evaluations on the issue.

 

LEGAL COVER: GOOD BEHAVIOR

 

(ÖHD Amed Branch Women's Commission member Halise Dakalı)

 

 

Pointing out that perpetrators are protected by discretionary discounts known as "good behavior", Dakalı said that the discounts applied are entirely at the discretion of the court. Dakalı said: “The judge has the discretion to apply discretionary discounts or not. However, the judge must use its discretion in accordance with the law and the concrete case. The judge making the trial can only consider the reasons listed in the law as the reason for reduction, but decisions that protect the perpetrator man, contrary to the principle of equality of the law, are given in courtrooms on grounds that hurt social conscience and justice."

 

THE ARMOR OF IMPUNITY AND ITS RESULTS

 

Pointing out that the perpetrators made different statements in order to get a discount on femicide, “We can evaluate this system, in which the perpetrator uses distorted concepts such as honor, love and affection to influence the court, and where even wearing a suit is considered a positive behavior, as a 'system in favor of men'. The fact that the rules of law, which have the duty of regulating social life and ensuring social justice, are far from this purpose and responsibility, shows itself with the decisions we have to hear in courtrooms every day. Unfortunately, these decisions can pave the way for many femicides due to the shield of impunity created around the male perpetrator" Dakalı said.

 

'NOT DISCRETE'

 

Recalling the murder of 4 women in the last week despite all legal applications, Dakalı said: “We cannot individually see the process that the women who were murdered were subjected to due to not being able to receive legal aid in recent days. I believe that the systematic oppression and exploitation policies imposed on women in the course of history should be evaluated as a part of the process that has reached the point of femicide. State systems have always used legal and judicial mechanisms as a tool for the sustainability of their own existence and authoritarianism, rather than ensuring social justice. The law and the judiciary have been used as a means of punishment and intimidation for all segments of society that defend and resist society, especially women. This being the case, we cannot expect a system that sees women as the greatest force of social opposition and tries to squeeze the values of femininity into its own 'reasonable woman' values, to truly protect women and the values they carry. Naturally, we can define the main responsible as the male-dominated system itself, which sees law as the most unshakable foundation and tool in the continuity of their own order.”

 

'IT CAN BE DEALED WITH SELF-DEFENSE'

 

Stating that women should struggle instead of waiting to be protected, “Instead of waiting for protection to be provided first, I think that each woman needs to make sense of her own existence and reveal her feminine values and power. We can fight the system on the basis of self-defense only if we make our own existential power conscious and share it on the axis of organized struggle. We can ensure the creation and applicability of effective protection mechanisms when we ensure the existence of women in law, economy, politics, ecology and many other fields by fighting for existence against this understanding of the political power that sees women as the most dangerous opposition dynamic" Dakalı said.

 

MA / Berivan Kutlu