THE co-chair of Turkey’s Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) called on the government today to take action to stem a rising tide of femicide, accusing the authorities of being “responsible for the massacres of women.”

Pervin Buldan was speaking at a meeting of the party’s parliamentary women’s group a day after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had dismissed the number of murders of women in Turkey as insignificant, claiming that “three times as many men are killed.”

“The duty of the government is not to issue condemnation, it is to prevent these murders and to ensure the heaviest punishment of the perpetrators,” she told those gathered, who included members of the Rosa Women’s Association and Revolutionary Party leader Elif Torun.

Violence and rape has increased along with femicide, Ms Buldan said, arguing that state misogyny is responsible for “this terrible picture” as perpetrators continue to act with impunity. 

She highlighted the sickening rape and murder of 92-year-old woman Hanim Pinarli and attacks on International Women’s Day demonstrations.

Kurdish women are particularly targeted, Ms Buldan said, while adding that the “anti-Kurdish government should know that Kurdish women are politically organised.

“Make no mistake that we will hold you to account for all the crimes you have committed … one by one. Your crimes will not remain in the dark. Women will not allow it,” she said.