Do not blame only men for murdering women: Retired police chief

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Women are partly to blame for Turkey’s ever-rising number of women’s murders, a retired police chief has said in an article for the January edition of the Contemporary Police Journal magazine.

“Naturally our women are in a position of victimhood against men due to the [discrepancy between their levels of] physical strength. It is not possible to say the same, however, with respect to [women’s use of] language and gestures. The blame for the murders cannot be squarely placed on men’s shoulders,” retired Police Chief Dr. Hasan Yağar said in his article, according to daily Milliyet.

Yağar further said nearly all such incidents pertaining to the murder of women take place in dense urban areas rather than in villages or hamlets in distant corners of Anatolia. The presence of attitudes that are not in line with Turkey’s traditions, customs and religious convictions in major cities are causing new migrants trying to adapt to their new circumstances to falter and fall into confusion, he said.

“It is a grave mistake to link the problem merely to the sadism of men. It is entirely impossible to ignore or deny that the matter is related to our national traditions and customs, and even to our social mysticism, or in other words, our religious perspective,” he said.