Turkey: Violence against children — a neglected problem

"Dainty," "sensitive," "tender," "fragile": That is how Narin's name can be translated into English. Her case has topped the headlines in Turkish media for weeks. This 8-year-old girl from the village of Tavsantepe, near Diyarbakir in the southeast of the country, was reported missing several weeks ago; her dead body was found in a sack on September 8 beside a nearby river.

The case shook the entire country. There were countless reports and comments on it in social media as well. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc has visited the Kurdish village, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised on X, formerly Twitter, that whoever is guilty of the crime will be brought to justice. Both said that the perpetrator(s) would receive "the harshest punishment."

One reason for the nationwide outrage is that the entire village of 550 inhabitants is refusing to say anything. Several members of Narin's family — including her parents — are under suspicion and are in custody. Altogether 12 people have been arrested so far, among them Narin's uncle, the village head of Tavsantepe.

Forensic doctors say the girl was strangled. The public is of the opinion that someone from this village must know who murdered Narin — but no one is saying a word.

"Turkey is facing a complex case. The murderer is being sheltered by the family of the victim and the people close to it," says Halis Dokgoz, a forensic doctor and director of the Child Protection Center at Mersin University.

The region where Narin lived is rather traditional and conservative, and the society is based on tribal structures. In such communities, children are often "objectivized," meaning that their deaths are played down, Dokgoz says. Mostly, the perpetrator in such cases is someone that the child already knows," he says.

Lack of prevention

Narin's is not an isolated case. According to the Turkish Child Rights Center (FISA), at least 64 children were murdered over the past 2 1/2 years, often as a result of domestic violence. The center collects its data from publicly accessible sources.

Turkish authorities have not published official data on killed or missing children since 2016. The most recently published statistics show that 104,531 children were reported missing across the country in the period from 2008 to 2016. This makes it unclear today not only how many cases there have been since then, but also how many of these children have been found so far — dead or alive.

Experts criticize the lack of transparency and preventive policies in this area and call for the systematic collection and publication of information on missing children. "To bring about a political solution to the problem, we need data," says Ezgi Koman from FISA. 

She says the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has been appealing for years to Turkish authorities to provide the relevant information. "If they do have data but are keeping it secret, that would mean that they do not want to be held accountable. Or they want to prevent people from knowing how serious the situation is. Or the children just don't matter to them," Koman says.

DW has confronted the Turkish Family Ministry and the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) with these statements but has so far received no relevant response.

The opposition has submitted a parliamentary inquiry to the government, too, and also received no reply. The 15-day deadline for an answer to be given expired on Thursday, September 19.

Among other things, the opposition wanted to know how many children have been reported missing since 2016. According to statistics in the hands of the opposition, there must be more than 10,000 of them. Burhanettin Bulut, a politician from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said that the lack of transparency in this matter was a "disgrace" for the government.

'Children must know their rights'

If such data were available, forensic doctors, social workers, psychologists and police could develop strategies to possibly prevent such cases, Dokgoz says. "At present, we know nothing at all. We follow up on a case only after it has been made public. And when we do so, we focus only on the question: 'Who is the murderer?' That is wrong," says Dokgoz. He feels that authorities lack the motivation to come up with sustainable solutions to prevent such cases.

Sahin Antakyalioglu, the coordinator of the Child Advocates Network (CACAV), is of the same opinion. He says there should be a publicly available warning system with all data and "a basic, solution-oriented policy" for child protection. This would include an easily accessible help hotline that all children can ring, whether they live in a city or in a village, he says. And, Antakyalioglu says, there should also be "an education system that teaches children what rights they have."

There is "no sense in giving a child rights if the child is not aware of them," Antakyalioglu says. "Do we tell children where they can report it if someone touches them? We have to start teaching them these things even before they go to school."

Children have to be capable of saying when someone forces them to do something," he says. Until Turkey succeeds in taking all these steps, he says, Turkish society will keep being shocked by cases like that of 8-year-old Narin.

This article was originally published in Turkish.