As Turkey grapples with a wave of femicides, the body of a 21-year-old female student who went missing nearly three weeks ago has been found in eastern Turkey, Agence-France Presse reported on Tuesday, citing a government official.
Hundreds of women have taken to the streets in major cities across Turkey over the past 10 days to denounce the series of murders.
The protests began following a grisly October 4 attack in İstanbul in which two 19-year-olds were killed within half an hour of each other by a young man of the same age who then killed himself.
One of the women was decapitated.
The body of Rojin K. was found on the shores of Lake Van near the village of Molla Kasım some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Turkey’s eastern border with Iran, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X.
Although Yerlikaya did not give the cause of death nor confirm whether she had been murdered, it is rare for such a high-ranking official to comment publicly on a missing persons case.
The young woman was studying at university in the nearby city of Van where she was last seen leaving her dormitory on September 27.
Turkey has struggled to contain a wave of femicides, with the country shocked by the murder of an 8-year-old girl in August and a 26-year-old policewoman last month.
Many of those protesting at the weekend chanted slogans against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who initially blamed alcohol and social media for the violence.
But last week he promised to toughen the justice system and crack down harder on crime.
Part of the anger is about Turkey withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention, which was set up by the Council of Europe and required signatory countries to pass laws aimed at preventing and prosecuting violence against women.
Women’s organizations want Turkey to return to the convention.
Turkey withdrew from it in 2021, with Erdogan’s government claiming it encouraged homosexuality and threatened the traditional family structure.
In the three months to September 30, 117 women were murdered and another 110 died under suspicious circumstances, according to a statement released on Friday by women’s rights groups who based their figures on press reports.