‘Violence has no ties to education, wealth’

SAKARYA - Anatolia News Agency

This file photo shows a protest against domestic violence in İzmir. The survey shows that the greatest levels of violence occur in Turkey’s western provinces. DHA photo

A recent official survey demonstrates that domestic violence afflicts Turkey across the board, irrespective of education and wealth, despite perceptions to the contrary, according to Ayhan Sefer Üstün, the head of Parliament’s Human Rights Commission.

“We laid bare through this [survey] that domestic violence does not occur only in regions with low levels of education. This was the prevalent perception, and we shattered it. Our people always thought intellectual and rich sections of society would be spared from violence, but this is false,” Üstün said.

The official survey has indicated that the greatest levels of violence occur in Turkey’s western regions, thereby demonstrating that violence is not a problem confined solely to the country’s east, he said, adding that the study covered all of Turkey’s 81 provinces.

“We determined through this report that violence could rear its head in every section of society regardless of how developed [they may be] economically and educationwise. In that respect, domestic violence is not merely the problem of a certain segment of society. It is a problem afflicting everyone, including the educated, the rich and the poor,” Üstün said.

Violence in military
The commission also took up the issue of violence perpetrated in military institutions, he said, adding that violence in the armed forces also was shown to be greater in western Turkey than in the east.

“We saw that violence toward soldiers was less frequent in regions beset with terrorism than in the west, contrary to the prevalent view. We saw that the largest number of complaints emanated from western provinces,” he added.The southeastern provinces of Hakkari, Şırnak, Van ranked at the bottom of the list concerning rates of domestic violence in recent years, according to the study.