Domestic violence gains a voice in Turkey

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

DAMARIS KREMIDA
ISTANBUL- Turkish Daily News
  Violence against women in Turkey has come out from behind closed doors and is now squarely in the public arena thanks to a major, multi-faceted campaign, according to a special report on Turkey published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Monday.  
  The campaign started in an effort to raise public awareness of domestic violence against women, an issue that thrives universally in silence and shame. Since then, the director of corporate communications at Hürriyet and of the Stop Violence against Women Campaign, Temuçin Tüzecan, said, “The project has really taken a life of its own.” The campaign was initiated in Oct. 2004 with a partnership between Turkish media giant Hürriyet newspaper, a Turkish nongovernmental organization called the Contemporary Education Foundation (CEV) and the Istanbul Governorship.
  “If you want to change the mentality of a country, you need to involve many social actors,” said Meltem Ağduk, the UNFPA Gender and Advocacy program coordinator in Turkey. “Most research has showed that you need the government to enact and implement legislation, you need NGOs and other civil society and social actors and you need the support of the private sector,” she said according to the UNFPA news report. The Turkish campaign now in its fourth year has involved all three sectors and had the backing of the press as well as well-known entertainment figures.
  The country, according to the special news report, has been working on the issue for decades. Since 1985, when it ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence (CEDAW), the government of Turkey has enacted a number of legal reforms to end discrimination against women and expand their human rights. However, the reforms had little impact, even coupled with years of advocacy by women's organizations. 
  “One third of all families suffer from domestic violence against women and it was a hidden issue for years,” Said Elvan Omay, corporate communications manager at Hürriyet. Omay, who is also the project manager of the campaign, said that the public in general was unaware that violence against women was happening and mainstream media wasn't covering it. She explained that Hürriyet is a main media outlet with serious influence in Turkey and in the Turkish speaking community abroad. “So we wanted to use that power to help curb the domestic violence against women using our resources,” she said.
  In 2005, UNFPA came aboard the project when all parties decided to join forces in order to be more effective in increasing public awareness on violence against women and eradicating it in Turkey. After an international conference in Turkey on the issue in November 2005 with the participation of UNFPA, public awareness climaxed. Artists, journalists, athletes and other popular culture icons came out and spoke of their own experiences and the media started covering these issues much more extensively. “Not only Hürriyet,” said Omay. 
  The UNFPA report cited the active participation of Turkish men – especially sports heroes – as the key to the campaign's success. Over the course of the campaign football players spread the message – 'Stop violence against women!' during half-time and in film spots on television and in cinemas across the country. During the height of the football season, players donned t-shirts and paraded with banners protesting violence against women while men all across Turkey watched on their televisions. 
  One of the components of the campaign, was ongoing training in a small bus on the outskirts of Istanbul. The training was conflict resolution communication training, said Omay, on how to be a good father, husband, how to communicate without resorting to violence and legal rights. The training expanded with local trainers to Urfa, Trabzon, Erzurum, Kars, Nevşehir, İzmir, Ankara and Van in 2006, coordinated by CEV that also created the training program. In the last three years, 20,000 men and women have been reached through these training sessions. Another prong of the campaign was the training of volunteers on how to support victims. During the “bus training,” as Omay called it, it became clear in surveys that victims of domestic violence preferred to get help from their relatives, elders and neighbors. So, the need to create a supportive community fabric became necessary to the coordinators of the project. 
  The campaign, according to UNFPA's news release, goes beyond advocacy: Training of personnel directly involved with survivors or perpetrators of violence against women is another crucial aspect for actually changing behavior and ensuring that the victims are treated with dignity. With UNFPA support, the government has developed training for key audiences, including military recruits, social workers, health personnel and the police. The advocacy campaign has also given new life to government efforts to create shelters for women who have been abused. 
  Omay said that they were planning to have their fourth international conference on violence against women in Nov. 2007 and said that it might focus on developing projects prepared in Turkey to stop domestic violence. “It's a good opportunity to share international and local know-how and experience about curbing domestic violence,” she said. 
  When asked what has changed since the beginning of the campaign, Omay sitting at her desk in the Hürriyet Media Towers with a big poster calling out, “Stop Violence against Women,” said that the campaign has had a butterfly effect. “It's not only our efforts. I believe that as Hürriyet is a really influential media outlet we helped raise public awareness on the issue and probably had the opportunity to influence the decision makers as well,” she said. 
  While it may take some time to get solid results showing declines in gender-based violence, Turkey has mobilized at many levels to promote the idea that domestic violence against women is no longer acceptable.