Muharrem Erkek, CHP’s deputy of Çanakkale and a member of the Constitutional Committee, shared striking information on child molestation and pedophilia in a press conference.
Reminding of the last week’s brutal rape and murder of 3 year-old Irmak, Erkek stated: “How longer can the government turn their back on these facts? How is it possible that no precaution is taken in spite of all this violence against children and women, pedophilia, and sex offenses? Is it possible to explain this with politics, law, or conscience? The government has to face the truth, and take precautionary steps against this.”
The data Muharrem Erkek shared with the public is as follows:
The number of the lawsuits for sex offenses in Turkey in 2006 was 3.649. 43.5%, that is, 2.282 of the judgements in the same year were concluded with conviction. The data shows a deep degeneracy in the following ten years. The number of the lawsuits for sex offenses in 2015 was 13.619, with an increase of 400%.
The number of the lawsuits for child molestation was 2.414 in 2006, and the total number of judgements was 3.778, 42.5 (1.607) of which ended up with conviction. In 2015, on the other hand, the number of the lawsuits for child molestation rose to 16.957. 55.9 (of the 24.983 judgements) ended up with conviction.
These numbers, however, demonstrate only the cases that were recorded. It is also known by public that young children, and even women refrain from admitting that they were abused or raped. Thus, the real cases must outnumber the official records.
Along with all this information, it is still remembered well that the government officials repeatedly defended Ensar Foundation, which is a Political Islamist NGO, when some of their teachers were revealed to have abused and raped more than a hundred children on the plea of teaching.
Directorate of Religious Affairs, on the other hand, has been known for their outrageous fatwas for a long while now. In January, for example, they tried to justify incest with a fatwa, claiming that it would not be sinful for a father to sexually desire his daughter, with the condition that the daughter is older than 9.
