Twenty-six women were murdered by men in Turkey in April, while another 23 died under suspicious circumstances, the We Will Stop Femicide Platform said in a monthly report.
Of the 26 women who were murdered, 10 were killed by their husbands, two by former husbands, two by current partners, one by her father, one by a relative and one by her son.
Six women were killed over reasons linked to personal decisions, including refusing reconciliation, economic disputes and refusing to terminate a pregnancy. In 20 cases, the motive behind the killings could not be determined.
On April 3, 19-year-old Şahsenem Zoroğlu was shot and killed in Ankara by her boyfriend, who later died by suicide, according to the report.
On April 16, 32-year-old Fatma Kurt was allegedly shot and killed in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş by her husband over not preparing a meal.
On April 22, 25-year-old Serap Yılmaz and 32-year-old Hatice Yeysikan were shot dead outside a hotel in the southwestern province of Muğla.
Femicide and violence against women are chronic problems in Turkey, where women are killed, raped or beaten almost every day.
According to the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, at least 294 women were murdered by men in 2025.
Many critics say the main reason for the situation is the policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which protects violent and abusive men by affording them impunity.
Turkish courts have repeatedly attracted criticism due to their tendency to hand down lenient sentences to offenders, claiming that the crime was merely “motivated by passion” or by interpreting victims’ silence as consent.
In a move that attracted national and international outrage, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used a presidential decree to withdraw the country from an international treaty in March 2021 that requires governments to adopt legislation prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence and similar abuse as well as marital rape and female genital mutilation.
The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is an international accord designed to protect women’s rights and prevent domestic violence in societies and was opened to the signature of Council of Europe member states in 2011. Turkey had been a party to the convention until 2021.
Erdoğan’s allies have also been calling for further rollbacks, urging the repeal of a domestic law that stipulates protection mechanisms for women who either have suffered or are at risk of suffering violence.
This article is republished from the Stockholm Center for Freedom.
