Turkish interior minister blames murdered women for ‘opening door’ to murderers

Duvar English

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on Nov. 21 blamed some women for their own murders. 

Speaking at the parliament during the 2025 budget talks, Yerlikaya was asked a question regarding the femicides by a deputy. 

Yerlikaya claimed that some women “do not comply with their warnings.”

“We make the woman sign a document when we take a protection order. After the protection order, the police read out the 11 articles in the document. They say, 'We have taken you under protection, but abide by this'. It says, for example, 'If the suspect approaches you, go to the nearest sheltered place and ask for direct assistance from law enforcement. Do not meet the suspect face to face’ etc.,” Yerlikaya said.

“Once a week we ask the neighborhood head (“mukhtar”) if anyone comes and goes here. The intelligence follows them. I am telling you for the first time, even though they had a protection order, last year 32 ladies did not obey our warning, opened the door when a man came to the door, and he shot her inside,” he added, blaming the women for the femicides. 

The minister’s remarks stirred a huge reaction among women assemblies.

In a statement, the Mor Çatı Women’s Shelter Foundation said a minister responsible for combating violence “lacks knowledge about violence.”

“When state protection and support mechanisms do not work effectively, women may resort to their own solutions. In other words, they may say yes to men's insistent demands and requests to talk, in the hope that the violence will stop, so that men will not get more ‘angry.’ When men are not given the message that violence is not accepted and will not go unpunished, violence continues and men inflict violence on women again. On the other hand, women may fear the perpetrator of violence precisely because they have been subjected to violence, and may open the door for this reason,” it said. 

“Yerlikaya's statement is also an example of the problems caused by treating the fight against violence against women as a public order problem in Turkey. It is not possible to combat violence by only issuing protective measures to women without any social work. We remind once again that the state's duty is not to blame women for being subjected to violence, but to establish gender equality, protect women from violence, and punish the perpetrators, and that it should do so in coordination with the Family and Social Services Ministry,” it added.

In 2023, at least 315 femicides and 248 suspicious deaths were recorded in the country. 

Turkey has made moves in recent years to lessen protections for women. In July 2021, the country formally withdrew from the Istanbul Convention (the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence), a move that advocacy groups say was a major setback for women in the country. Turkey was the first country to sign the Convention back in 2011.