Imprisoned Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş has urged men in Turkey to confront their role in the country’s ongoing femicide crisis, calling for immediate action to protect women’s rights. In a letter handed to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel who visited him on Monday, Demirtaş stressed the urgent need for societal change and governmental action to tackle the widespread violence against women.
“This is a call for all men, including myself, to face the reality of our mindset,” wrote Demirtaş, former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). “Violence against women is not a reflection of an individual problem but of a societal one. We must not leave this struggle to women alone – men must shoulder responsibility.”
University student’s body found amid Turkey’s femicide crisis
Demirtaş highlighted the alarming rise in femicides and assaults, noting that public spaces, workplaces and even homes have become unsafe for women. He urged men to stop looking for others to blame and to start examining their own roles in perpetuating a system that fosters violence. “We have created this cycle of violence, and we are responsible for breaking it,” he said.
In his call for government action, Demirtaş urged the Turkish authorities to reinstate the İstanbul Convention, which was designed to prevent violence against women, and listed a series of urgent measures to combat the crisis. These included stricter legal consequences for gender-based crimes and increased protection for women at risk, such as better enforcement of electronic monitoring and ramping up the numbers of women’s shelters across the country.
State alliance with religious sect fuels child deaths, femicide in Turkey, say Kurdish groups
He also called for the establishment of sexual assault crisis centres and the introduction of gender equality education starting in primary schools. “Men should not remain silent – they must offer their support by standing with women, listening and actively participating in the fight for equality,” he urged.
Addressing Turkish leaders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Özel among others, Demirtaş appealed for cross-party cooperation to implement these measures. “We need urgent, effective steps to address this issue. If we are serious about building a peaceful society, we must start by securing women’s safety,” he wrote.
Turkey has been grappling with a surge in unchecked femicides, sparking widespread protests across the country. Demonstrations erupted following the brutal murders of İkbal Uzuner and Ayşegül Halil by Semih Çelik, with activists calling for urgent government action to halt the rising violence. Protesters highlighted the grim statistic of 261 women murdered in the first eight months of 2024 alone, blaming government inaction and the withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention for exacerbating the crisis.
Protests surge across Turkey against rising femicide
