For the first time in Turkey, the concept of “family massacre” has been formally addressed in the Turkish parliament, with the recent publication of a report by the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Violence targeting women and children has long been a topic of discussion in the Turkish media and among civil society organisations, MPs and campaigners. But “Children Killed in Femicide”, a project of CHP member of parliament Sevda Erdan Kılıç that investigates men who kill their partners and children, aims to prompt more concerted action.
Kılıç, who has been tracking femicides in Turkey since the beginning of 2024, began investigating family massacres when she noticed the number of children being killed in such incidents. According to her research, 43 children were murdered in acts of domestic violence during 2024.
The MP for Izmir tells Inside Turkey that the aim of the report is to reframe family massacres not as isolated tragedies but as manifestations of a wider, gendered political crisis. The report notes that most killings occur after relationship breakdown between couples and often come after previous reports of domestic abuse.
“The number one reason for mass killings within families is women’s desire to divorce,” Kılıç says. “Men commit these murders during discussions aimed at reconciliation. The second reason is child custody disputes. The third reason is economically motivated mass killings.”
According to Kılıç, the Turkish media usually describes these murders as cinnet, crimes of “temporary insanity”, or one-off tragedies. But she says that patterns documented in the report, such as the frequent use of firearms, indicates family massacres are often premeditated.
The MP points out that men often kill children as a way to take revenge on women, adding: “children are either killed alongside their mothers or while trying to protect them”.
The report proposes reforms including reinstating aspects of the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty on domestic violence and gender equality that Turkey withdrew from in 2021, as well as strengthening legal protections for women and children.
Feminist lawyer Hülya Gülbahar also believes that men kill children for reasons such as revenge or punishment. Emphasising the importance of Kılıç’s report, Gülbahar says: “This is not a new phenomenon in Turkey. However, the fact that it has been documented in a report is very important.”
“Unfortunately, these crimes have never been questioned in our society”, she adds.“Instead, language that exonerates the perpetrators has been used to cover up the issue. However, such cases need to be examined in depth. We still haven’t done this.”
Gülbahar also argues that child murders share similarities with femicides: “Violence against children is becoming increasingly brutal and ruthless. The act of stabbing a child multiple times in a fit of rage is one such example.”
For feminist campaigners, there is an urgent need to highlight the social and political nature of these crimes. Independent NGOs, such as We Will Stop Femicides Platform and Mor Çatı, argue that media coverage of family massacres usually focuses on the perpetrator’s emotions at the expense of the victims and downplays institutional failures. A 2024 study of media representation of femicides also criticised a lack of data, context and ethical coverage.
As yet, the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), has not responded to the report. The government is keen to promote what it says are pro-women policies, but critics say there is a contradiction between its rhetoric on strengthening women’s economic independence and its pronouncements on the sanctity of the family.
In this context, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared 2025 the “year of the family”, introducing state support for each newborn child. But domestic violence is not currently on the government’s agenda.
“Not only has the government failed to take any preventive action, but after withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention, it even questioned the Lanzarote Convention of the Council of Europe, which protects children from sexual exploitation and abuse,” says lawyer Hülya Gülbahar.
“Despite all the rhetoric about the sanctity of the family, there is not even a mention of policies addressing the violence and abuse that children face within families and in educational institutions.”
As Turkey’s main opposition party, the CHP aims to shift the focus of debate on family massacres from individual morality to accountability, which it also hopes will be a successful electoral strategy. But its report is also an intervention in an ongoing dispute about how Turkey collects data.
The country’s official statistics institution is the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK). Although the government relies on TÜİK’s reports for policy and analysis, critics have accused the institution of manipulating data. Significant discrepancies between reports published by NGOs and TÜİK’s statistics have fueled the claim that “there is no reliable data in the country”, with femicides and child murders being a major point of contention.
TÜİK did not release any statistics on violence against women for nearly a decade. When asked why this was the case in January 2024, the agency told a parliamentary commission that it was because responsibility for collecting data on the subject had been reassigned to the Ministry of Family and Social Services.
But the ministry has not published any data on violence against women either. In November 2024, minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş announced that a reliable data system was being established to guide policies on countering violence against women and that TÜİK would begin fieldwork for a new study.
Regarding violence against children, however, there is neither data nor an official statement.
The legal system is also failing to offer adequate protection, experts say. This is most evident in family courts, which handle divorce, child custody and restraining orders. Numerous rulings reflect this trend. In 2023, for instance, a court in Istanbul granted visitation rights to a father with a documented history of abuse. In another case, a judge denied a restraining order request on the grounds that it would harm the father-child bond.
Nihat Tarımeli, a social services specialist, tells Inside Turkey that judges prioritise family unity over the violence faced by women and children and often fail to obtain reports from social workers during their deliberations.
“Children, especially in households where violence and divorce requests are present, are left unprotected,” Tarımeli says.
The CHP’s report also demands legal reform to hold judges accountable for poor decisions and urges mandatory training in gender-based violence for family court officials.