A report prepared by a civil society platform working on cases of abuse of minors have revealed that such cases increased by 50 percent in the past five years.
According to the report, which was prepared by the Platform to Protect Children and Their Rights and was reported on by haberdar.com news website, Turkish courts handed down a total number of 13,968 convictions for sexual abuse of minors since 2014.
The platform said in its report that the number of such cases are expected to be much higher than this figure since many such cases are glossed over before being brought to courts.
Reports of sexual abuse of minors have recently increased in Turkey. In a most recent case in Karaman, which came to public attention last month, caused a public outrage with many calling on authorities to shed light on the incident. As many as 45 boys are thought to have been abused by a male teacher allegedly took place in houses operated by the Ensar Foundation in Karaman.
The defendant Muharrem B., (54), who has been charged with “sexual assault of a minor”, “deprivation of freedom” and “coercing a minor to read and watch obscene material”, was taken into custody on March 4 and later arrested. He now faces up to 600 years in prison.