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DE RUEHAK #2066/01 3331523
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 281523Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8157
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC//J-3/J-5//
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEUITH/ODC ANKARA TU//TCH//
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEUITH/TLO ANKARA TU
RUEHAK/TSR ANKARA TU
RUEHAK/USDAO ANKARA TU

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 002066 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL OSCE TU
SUBJECT: TURKISH WOMEN TOO FIGHT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 
 
REF: ISTANBUL 452 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Turkey's young but steadily growing 
women's rights movement can claim progress in recent years. 
A handful of committed NGO's pushed the GOT to make women's 
rights one of the centerpieces of the government's 2003-2004 
effort to accelerate EU-related reforms.  They succeeded: the 
GOT enacted over 30 amendments to the Turkish Penal Code to 
address the previously taboo topic of domestic violence by 
criminalizing marital rape and stiffening punishments for 
those responsible for "honor killings."  However, Turkey has 
stagnated since then, and much remains to be done.  The 
November 25, 2008 International Day for the Elimination of 
Violence Against Women provided us the opportunity to reach 
out to a wide array of contacts to assess the state of 
Turkey's efforts to combat domestic violence and to conduct 
outreach activities on the issue (we report our outreach 
septel).  Our contacts agreed that Turkey is still struggling 
to implement the new legislation, and that success requires 
the government to recommit itself to the issue.  End summary. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Domestic Violence Strikes Turkey 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Domestic violence remains all-too-widely accepted in 
Turkish society today, according to our contacts in Turkey's 
women's rights community and a series of recent academic 
studies.  An 18-month survey involving 1800 married women 
conducted by Sabanci and Bogazici University found that one 
in three Turkish women have experienced some form of domestic 
violence.  The report stated that women are highly 
susceptible to abuse in their own homes at the hands of male 
relatives, and that the problem affects both urban and rural 
areas.  A recent report by the Compassion Association 
(Sefkat-Der) listed the various reasons Turkish men gave for 
abusing women:  a woman's perceived inability to bear a male 
child, leaving the home without permission, wanting to work, 
and a woman's unsatisfactory cooking skills. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Hidayet Tuksal, President of the Capital Women's 
Association, told us that lack of education is the most 
important contributor to domestic violence.  She noted that a 
large percentage of Turkish women do not receive an education 
beyond primary school.  According to Ministry of Education 
statistics, 80 percent of women aged 25-64 have only a 
primary education or lower.  The number of un-enrolled school 
age children during the 2007-2008 school year was 190,000, of 
which 157,000 were female.  Tuksal believes this lack of 
education directly impacts the way young women perceive the 
issue.  Bearing out her view, a 2003 study by Hacettepe 
University found thirty percent of women felt domestic 
violence was justified in certain situations. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Meltem Agduk of the United Nations Population Fund 
told us that the lack of economic opportunities that stems 
from poor education negatively affects women's attitudes 
toward domestic violence.  Women are unequally represented in 
the Turkish work force.  According to the European Union's 
2008 accession report on Turkey, women represented 24.7 
percent of the workforce in 2007.  The overall employment 
rate for women was even lower at 22.2 percent, the EU noted. 
Agduk told us that she has seen a great deal of anecdotal 
evidence to suggest that Turkish women who lack economic 
independence are less likely to leave their abusers or seek 
help.  She noted that even holding down a job is not 
sufficient protection, as many husbands force their working 
wives to give them control of any earnings. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Agduk told us that lack of education contributes to 
the persistence of the barbaric practice of "honor killings" 
-- murders ostensibly committed to uphold a family's honor. 
According to a July 2008 Prime Ministry Human Rights 
Presidency report, approximately 1000 honor killings have 
been committed in Turkey during the last five years.  The 
report noted that honor killings are not tied to one specific 
group of people, but they are more likely to be committed by 
persons of rural backgrounds and low levels of educational 
attainment.  Agduk noted that Turkey has made progress on the 
issue, including by passing legislation in 2005 to sharply 
stiffen punishments for family members who are involved in 
 
ANKARA 00002066  002 OF 003 
 
 
the killings, but said that there is a long way to go.  She 
noted that the new legislation had had the perverse effect of 
causing families to try to avoid the harsher penalties by 
enlisting minors to commit the killings or by forcing their 
female relatives to commit suicide. 
 
---------------------------------- 
Bold Women Hurdling Over Obstacles 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Tuksal told us that the emergence of the women's 
movement in Turkey during the 1990s brought the issue of 
gender based violence to the national agenda.  Groups such as 
Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR) persistently lobbied 
parliament to address domestic violence.  In 1998, Parliament 
passed a law that introduced the legal mechanism of 
restraining orders for domestic-related violence to Turkey. 
This was followed by reforms to the Civil Code in 2001 and 
Turkish Penal Code in 2004 that brought outdated notions in 
line with modernity.  Tuksel explained that the old civil 
code provision that declared the husband the legal head of 
the family was changed so that, "the family is based on 
equality between spouses," giving married women an equal 
voice in matters related to children and property.  In 2004 
Parliament passed a Law on Municipalities that required 
municipalities with over 50,000 residents establish a shelter 
for victims of domestic violence. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Since then, progress has faltered, according to our 
contacts.  Ilknur Ustun of the Association for Supporting and 
Training Women Candidates (KADER) told us that the primary 
problem is that the government has failed to ensure the many 
new laws were implemented.  She said that the 2004 law 
requiring women's shelters epitomizes the problem.  As 
documented by Amnesty International, only 35 shelters have 
been opened in Turkey to date, she noted.  In some provinces, 
NGOs are establishing their own shelters and in some cases, 
contributing their own funds to operate the facilities.  The 
Purple Roof Women's Shelter (Mor Cati), based in Istanbul, 
has contributed 400,000 lira of their own funds to open a 
women's shelter in the municipality of Beyoglu.  According to 
recent media reports, Purple Roof is no long able to provide 
financing for the shelter and is being dismissed from the 
project.  The government will reportedly take over all 
operations at the shelter.  It is unclear if the shelter will 
remain open. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Tuksal added that another key obstacle is the 
reluctance of authorities to get involved in an issue that 
has traditionally been considered a private family matter. 
In some cases authorities ignore complaints reported by 
women.  These attitudes have contributed to the reluctance of 
women to seek help from authorities.  Many women who do seek 
help from authorities cite gender insensitivity and claim 
that police often attempt to find a compromise between 
spouses instead of treating the violence as a crime. 
 
------------------ 
A Unified Solution 
------------------ 
 
¶9. (U) Our contacts agreed that a combined top-down and 
bottom-up approach is the only way to solve the problem. 
Progress requires the government to enact and implement 
progressive legislation to provide a framework for 
advancement.  But the real key -- changing the mentality of 
Turks -- requires a grass-roots approach complementing the 
government's efforts.  Our contacts identified three key 
strategies:  Get them young; teach them well; and change 
society's perception. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Get them young:  Ugur Ilhan of the Young Women's 
Shelter House Association (Genc Kiz Siginma Evi Dernegi) told 
us that the generational impact of violence against women 
creates a "chain of negative impacts," that is difficult to 
break without immediate attention.  She therefore is working 
to locate and counsel girls early.  Ilhan said she hopes to 
break the chain of violence early, by intervening in cases 
like that of one of her clients -- a woman who had been raped 
while attending a girls, school who, in an attempt to 
protect her own daughter, refused to send her to school.  Had 
 
ANKARA 00002066  003 OF 003 
 
 
this woman received counseling earlier, her daughter would 
not be trying to obtain a primary school education at the age 
of 20 and her grandchildren would have had a literate and 
educated mother. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Teach them well:  Ipek Ilkkaracan of Women for 
Women's Human Rights (WWHR) told us that educating women 
about their rights helps to combat violence by creating 
awareness.  It also provides women strength by and building 
of a community of like-minded individuals.  Ilkkaracan said 
her organization collaborates with the GOT's Social Services 
Directorate to provide training on women's rights and 
Turkey's legal system in over 70 community centers around the 
country.  WWHR's Hulya Gulbahar described the multiplier 
effect of this training with an anecdote about the male 
colleagues of the policewomen who received this training 
requesting such training themselves. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Change society's perception:  According to Canan 
Arin of Purple Roof, the Turkish media often sensationalizes 
honor killings and violence and therefore reinforces the 
image of women as victims, hindering them from developing 
positive self esteem.  They are working to urge the media to 
urge the media to purge the sensationalism and to cover 
women's issues in an objective and educational manner.  Arin 
believes that, "with help from the media, societal stigma 
related to discussing domestic violence will grow and a 
campaign to combat domestic violence will see success." 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) The legislative changes enacted by the GOT in 
2003-2004 to address Turkey's failures on combating domestic 
violence were groundbreaking.  But the hope that this effort 
gave to Turkey's human rights defenders has faded in recent 
years as the government failed to follow through with 
rigorous implementation.  Fully complying with EU standards 
and reaching the goal of becoming a truly democratic country 
requires Turkey recommit itself to an all-out effort -- 
legislative, judicial, and educational -- to combat domestic 
violence and strengthen the rights of Turkey's women. 
 
Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey 
 
SILLIMAN