Child murders traumatize Turkey
A government proposal to toughen penalties for child abuse has failed to soothe public outrage in Turkey amid a surge in deadly violence against children.
A series of child rapes and murders have rattled Turkey in recent months, sparking nationwide outrage and trauma. In the first four months of the year alone, 13 children perished as a result of violence or negligence. A government proposal to punish child abusers with up to 30 years in jail has failed to appease the public.
Turkey’s failure to prevent violence against children has now become one of the country’s major topics of discussion. The tally of 13 child deaths is based on incidents covered by the media, but many other cases are believed to have gone unreported.
The problem is certainly not new. In 2013, a total of 633 children died as a result of violence. The visibility of the problem, however, has increased remarkably as civil society action intensified, media coverage increased and more of society got the chance to join the debate.
The scale of the latest public outrage was a result of the gruesome details of specific murders, especially the cases of Mert Aydin, 9, and Gizem Akdeniz, 6, whose assailants seem to show no trace of human reason, let alone conscience.
