Ruling AKP MP says women are also to be blamed for male violence in Turkey

AKP lawmaker Hülya Atçı Nergis has said that women are also to be blamed for male violence in the country, as they are the ones who “raised those individuals that killed women.” “Do women have no part whatsoever in this violence? The language that always blames men with regards to this issue is also wrong,” she said on March 30. The AKP MP's latest controversial remarks came after she earlier in March said men get killed more than women do.

Wednesday March 31 2021 09:29 pm

AKP deputy Hülya Atçı Nergis is seen in this photo.

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A ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker has said that women are also to be blamed for male violence in the country.

“As much as there should be no violence against women, there should also be no violence against men. Women are the ones who raised those individuals that killed women. Do women have no part whatsoever in this violence? The language that always blames men with regards to this issue is also wrong,” AKP MP Hülya Atçı Nergis said.

Nergis made the remarks on a local TV show in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, as she was defending the government's controversial decision to withdraw from Istanbul Convention, an international treaty aimed against domestic abuse.

The AKP MP said she found it “disturbing” that that “feminist discourse is so much adopted” and “everyone is speaking through the same mouth.”

“I have broken the mold with regards to this issue. Some fractions [of society] have made criticism [towards me], but I am telling the truth. It personally disturbs me that men and women get different treatment,” she said.

Nergin had also previously raised eyebrows for saying that the number of men who get killed in the country is 12 times higher than that of women.

When reminded by a journalist that some 300 women were killed in 2020 in Turkey, Nergis had said: “But the number of men who were killed in Turkey [in 2020] was 12 times that. We are only talking about women.”

Nergis' March 8 statements had been met with surprise since women in Turkey get killed, beaten, or raped nearly every day. The official statistics of femicides are believed to be just the tip of the iceberg since many murders go unreported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AKP is often slammed for not protecting the women despite the gravity of the femicide plague. The judiciary protects men and the restraining orders obtained fall short of deterring men.