At least 48 women were murdered by men in Turkey in October, according to a report by the ‘We Will Stop Femicide Platform’ (KCDP). The report by the Istanbul-based women's rights organisation contains data on all femicides recorded by the police or published in the media. However, the actual number of femicides is likely to be significantly higher.

According to the KCDP, a further 23 women died under suspicious circumstances last month. Experience shows that perpetrators often stage scenes to make femicide look like suicide, an accident or natural causes. “According to our data, these were the highest numbers we have ever published in a monthly report,” the platform emphasised.

Nineteen of the 48 murdered women were allegedly murdered by their husbands, partners or ex-partners. In most of the other cases, the suspects were close relatives, including brothers and sons.

“These women were killed because they wanted to make decisions about their lives, because they wanted a divorce, because they refused to reconcile, because they did not want to marry or enter into a relationship,’ the report said. In 31 of the recorded femicides, it is unclear why the women were killed. The platform said that this is because patriarchal violence and femicides are being hidden and covered up in Turkey. “However, as long as the perpetrators are not identified and the motives for the murders are not clarified, as long as there are no fair trials and the suspects and perpetrators do not receive truly deterrent sentences, as long as no precautions are taken, the violence will take on even greater dimensions,” the organisation said.

The report also shows that women are least safe in their own homes: 54 percent of women killed by men in Turkey in the previous month were murdered in their own homes. Other murders occurred in public places such as parks and cemeteries or on the street. In 33 cases, the victims were shot, twelve women were stabbed, the rest were strangled, beaten to death or run over. At least 310 women in Turkey have been the victim of a patriarchally motivated murder since the beginning of the year. 183 more women have died suspicious deaths.