Welcomes the initiatives of the Turkish government in reorganising the system of shelters, in consultation with all stakeholders; notes that the official number of shelters for women who have been victims of violence, according to the General Directorate on the Status of Women, is 81, which is still very low and does not meet the needs of a population of approximately 70 million; calls on the Turkish government to set up shelters spread evenly throughout the country in sufficient numbers, in line with the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention of 11 May 2011 on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violen ...[+++]ce, thereby meeting the goal it set for itself with the Law on Municipalities, and to create a shelter in every municipality with at least 50 000 inhabitants; notes that shelters must be spread throughout the country, with a proper balance between rural and urban areas; emphasises the importance of introducing mechanisms for increasing security, capacity and supervision in the existing shelters and for imposing sanctions for non-compliance, of employing well-trained and well-paid social service personnel and ensuring, by means of professional training courses and other services, that women in shelters acquire adequate capabilities to build a new life for themselves and their children; stresses the importance of non-disclosure of the location of these shelters for the safety of the victims;

Welcomes the establishment of a specialised domestic violence bureau within the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office; stresses that by ensuring that the entire legal process in cases of violence against women is handled by public prosecutors who are experts in domestic violence, by granting this specialised bureau the authority to issue immediately effective direct orders to the police to arrest the perpetrator and protect the victim, including the immediate enforcement of protection orders and transfer to shelters, this office has achieved an important step in combating violence against women, protecting the victims and punishing th ...[+++]e perpetrators; in order to extend this level of protection to the entire country, calls on the Turkish government to establish specialised public prosecutors’ bureaus to deal with domestic violence in all the country’s provinces;

Deeply deplores the persistent high levels of domestic violence, including so-called honour crimes and the phenomenon of forced marriages; welcomes, in that connection, the initiatives by women’s movements which give visibility to these problems and urges the Government to step up its preventive efforts at all levels, in particular by enforcing Law No 4320 on the Protection of the Family and by monitoring its implementation by the police and the judiciary, by obliging municipalities of over 50 000 inhabitants to provide sufficient shelters for women and minors in danger, by effec ...[+++]tively monitoring full compliance with this obligation, and by putting in place a system of follow-up assistance for women and minors leaving the shelters, in order to provide them with appropriate psychological support, judicial assistance and health care and to assist their reintegration into society; calls on the Government to establish adequate and effective oversight of municipalities’ compliance with this obligation; urges the judiciary to ensure that violence against women and minors, as well as those fighting so-called honour crimes, is consistently and properly punished;

34. Notes that the shelters in Turkey for women who have been victims of violence, which are reported to have capacity for 469 women and which have thus far provided services for 5 512 women, do not meet the needs of a population of approximately 70 million, while even the modest possibilities afforded under the law in force, namely a shelter in all municipalities with over 50 000 inhabitants, are not being sufficiently utilised;

10. Calls on the Member States to take effective action to combat all forms of violence against women immigrants by providing adequate medical, legal and social support to the victims of violence, implementing social rehabilitation programmes for them, offering victims of the sex trade access to refuges, taking due account of their need for safety and protection, and by providing preventive information to women immigrants concernin ...[+++]g their rights in the host country;

Ensure specialised training for judges and prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, municipalities and other responsible institutions and establish shelters for women at risk of violence in all larger municipalities, in line with current legislation.