7,000 women in Turkey put under police protection

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The number of women under police protection reached nearly 7,000 in Turkey with Turkish local courts having issued 50,182 preventive measure injunctions to avoid domestic violence, according to statistics from the Family and Social Policies Ministry.

Some 6,764 women across Turkey are now protected by a police officer. The highest number of polices appointed for providing security to women is in the southern province of Adana where some 1,605 women are guarded by a police officer. The Central Anatolian province of Kayseri follows with some 1,302 women under police protection and Konya slips into third place on the list with 1,208 protected women living within the province.

There are only 12 cities in Turkey’s 82 provinces where no women applied for police protection.

Apart from providing police protection, the newly-adopted law also contains measures such as forbidding men who have previously committed acts of violence against their spouses from staying in the same house or even visiting or approaching them.

According to data compiled by news portal Bianet, at least 165 women in Turkey were reportedly murdered and 210 were injured by men in 2012.