Cyprus-Forum.com

[insan]

Forced marriage, in contrast to arranged marriage, has been described as "any marriage conducted without the valid consent of both parties and may involve coercion, mental abuse, emotional blackmail, and intense family or social pressure. In the most extreme cases, it may also involve physical violence, abuse, abduction, detention, and murder of the individual concerned".

A study in several provinces in east and southeast Turkey found that 45.7 per cent of women were not consulted about their choice of marriage partner and 50.8 per cent were married without their consent. Women forced into marriages are often under age. Those of them who refuse their family's choice of husband risk violence and even death. Men have used forced marriage to evade punishment for sexual assault, rape and abduction. There are also cases in which families, either deliberately or through neglect, fail to ensure that the sale of their daughter to a potential husband does not end up with their daughter being internally trafficked for forced prostitution. In other instances families fail to protect children from sexual exploitation.

Forced and underage marriages are in breach of international legal standards and of Turkish criminal law. However, this law is widely ignored in some areas.

A CULTURE OF VIOLENCE
Turkey has recently emerged from two decades of conflict in the southeast of the country between the Turkish armed forces and the armed opposition group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The conflict has polarized and fragmented communities. Forced internal migration has destroyed livelihoods, eroded the agricultural sector and arrested development in the region. In this context of institutionalized violence, crimes against women in the southeast both within the family and outside of it have been ignored and have gone largely unpunished. However, family violence is not confined to any one region of Turkey but is experienced by women all across the country.

The freedom of women is often curtailed with the purpose of controlling their sexuality. According to traditional codes of so-called "honour", which function with many variants in different parts of the world, the conduct of women has the greatest potential to bring "dishonour" on the family. The threat of death or violence may be used to enforce these codes within the community. In many cases deaths are not reported; murders are made to look like suicides and covered up by families; and women are forced or induced to kill themselves.

The authorities’ frequent failure to thoroughly investigate the violent deaths of and injuries to women renders extremely difficult any attempt to monitor and record such crimes.

Women in communities with this belief system face enormous difficulties in speaking out against sexual violence. If they disclose sexual assaults, they are perceived as "shameful" for bringing up "private" matters and may even be regarded as "guilty". Whatever the evidence of an assault, blame still tends to be attached to the woman. Even those who do not agree with this attribution of blame may come under public pressure to "punish" the woman. The livelihood of entire families may be affected: a shopkeeper who does not "cleanse his family honour" may lose all his customers, for example.

In practice the concept of "honour" has been degraded to such a degree that it is used as a justification for a wide spectrum of violent crimes against women. Women can be locked in their homes, ostracized and murdered for being victims of rape.

REDRESS, NOT EXCUSES
There are many barriers facing women who need access to justice and protection from violence:
Police officers often fail to investigate women's complaints, wrongly believing their role to be to "make peace" in the family.
For different reasons many women are unable to make formal complaints.
Officials express discriminatory attitudes, thus failing to uphold women's rights and increasing the risks they face by making violence against women seem less significant than it is.
Women who are at risk of being killed by their partners or other relatives are rarely offered shelter or assisted in seeking a protection order from the courts.
Lack of confidence in law enforcement officials discourages women from seeking support and protection from the state, and contributes to making violence against women an invisible crime.
There is a severe shortage of shelters.


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This is the most disgusting, imo.

[rulla]

hi first of all are you frrom turkey?


and why dont you send this letter to the human rights departments in the european union since turkey wants to join europe this sort of thing should be stopped.

[insan]

Hi rulla. I'm a Cypriot and the above articles is a part of Turkey's human rights report. I just posted it here to both inform the forum members and put it forth for discussion.

[magikthrill]

Turkey violating human rights? What's new.

What is disgusting is the efforts the country is making to enter the EU when it has neglected its interior affairs.

[insan]

magikthrill, in a country; violations of human rights and state sponsored violation of human rights are two different issues. That's the point you've missed.

The current Turkish Government strongly believe and trust itself that she would overcome all violations of human rights in 10 or 15 years time. And that's what convinced EU to open its doors to Turkey. Though there are also economical, strategical and security dimensions of this issue.

[magikthrill]

insan,

i completely agree. i am saying that it is wrong for Turkey to focus on getting into the EU before it focuses on getting rid of its human rights violations first. I mean when a country has so much money pooring into its military and has completely neglected its poor (used both literally and figuratively) citizens then its the governments fault too.

of course this is indirectly related to the Cyprus problem as well but I won't get into that.

[insan]

I mean when a country has so much money pooring into its military and has completely neglected its poor (used both literally and figuratively) citizens then its the governments fault too.

Actually Turkey's main problem is low standard of attainments that derive from wrong education system; due to bad management of incapable self-seeker politicians and self-interest groups which plundered the financial resources of Turkey throughout many decades. The financial resources that has been embezzled by those self-seeker politicians and self-interest groups; is at least 100 times more than the budget allocated for military spendings.

[brother]

Well put insan.

[magikthrill]

insan,

i have no reason to disagree with you since I wouldn't know but when you say this amount is 100 times more (I'm assuming an exaggeration but I get the picture) do you mean an annual basis or over the course of the yeas?

Either way why doesn't Turkey use some of its many to fund its educational system.

Every country has corrucpt special interest groups and politicians. Greece is/was probably one of the worst. But you don't see any Greek people hanging a woman who was raped because she brought "disgrace" to the family. I mean the worst you'll get with us is some hillbilly taking revenge upon his neighbour by screwing his neighbour's goat to death

[insan]

insan,

i have no reason to disagree with you since I wouldn't know but when you say this amount is 100 times more (I'm assuming an exaggeration but I get the picture) do you mean an annual basis or over the course of the yeas?

46. Turkey $118.92 per person
47. Croatia $117.58 per person
48. Czech Republic $116.12 per person
49. Argentina $110.99 per person
50. Estonia $110.04 per person
Weighted Average $496.9 per person

Source: CIA World Factbook, December 2003

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/mil_exp_dol_fig_cap


magikthrill, Turkey is one of the mid-rated country according to the statistical data of military expenditures per capita. On the other hand, it is estimated that the total loss of income of the state because of unregistered economy(illegal economy) is no less than 50 billion $, annually. When the bad loans, dead loans, rescue operations of bunkrupt banks and companies, bribery and malpractices is added; the figures rise an invisible level. And if all those financial losses had been legally spent for the correct areas that needs investment; you guess what would be the result.

Either way why doesn't Turkey use some of its many to fund its educational system.

Last year a civil initiative comprise of some famous artists, businessmen and volunteers initiated an education campaign for 1 million children. As far as I know the campaign goes good. A substantial amount of money has been raised and spent for those children's educational needs. If such campaigns had been organized for the last 20 years; I'm sure, today Turkey would have been one of the most alround properous country in the world.

Every country has corrucpt special interest groups and politicians. Greece is/was probably one of the worst. But you don't see any Greek people hanging a woman who was raped because she brought "disgrace" to the family. I mean the worst you'll get with us is some hillbilly taking revenge upon his neighbour by screwing his neighbour's goat to death

"Honour killings" is an accepted practice among the Kurdish tribes and Arab originated groups of Turkey. These tribes and Arab originated groups don't recognize the civil law of republic of Turkey. They are very crowdy and politically influential in their regions. None of the governments of Turkey can dare to change these people in a short time because of the fear of losing power in those regions. The PKK terror also negatively affected the economy, social life and development of those regions. In the last 20 years none of the Turkish or foreign investors could dare to invest in those regions. In the last years things are slowly slowly changing in those regions..