A government that leads the world in jailing journalists has drafted a law that could grant amnesty to thousands of convicted child sexual abusers. The proposal by Turkey’s ruling party would free men from prison on the condition that they marry their underaged victims, sparking a nationwide outcry and forcing lawmakers to temporarily shelve the plan.
The controversial legislation, debated in the Turkish Parliament, aimed to defer sentences for sexual abuse crimes committed before November 16, 2016, if the perpetrator married the victim. If passed, the law would have immediately released approximately 3,000 men from prison, effectively legitimizing acts of child rape through state-sanctioned marriage.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ defended the motion, claiming it was not a pardon for rapists but a solution to the “reality of religious marriages” conducted with minors outside the scope of civil law. However, this justification stands in stark contrast to Turkish law, which prohibits marriage before the age of 17 and requires a court order for 16-year-olds.
The government’s argument ignores a grim reality. Official statistics reveal that over 480,000 child marriages occurred in the last decade. In 2015 alone, more than 18,000 underage girls gave birth, 244 of whom were under the age of 15. In practice, when a child gives birth, hospitals are legally required to report it, leading to criminal proceedings against the male partner with sentences of up to 16 years. This proposed law sought to dismantle that very legal protection.
Jurists and human rights advocates raised alarm bells, pointing out a critical flaw: the bill contained no minimum age for the victim. This could have created a scenario where a 60-year-old man who abused and then “married” a 12-year-old girl could walk free. A senior judge from the Supreme Court of Appeals had previously testified to a parliamentary commission about a case where three men abducted and raped a girl; one later married her, resulting in the sentences for all three being overturned.
The immense public backlash forced the ruling party to withdraw the bill for “revisions.” Yet, the episode sheds light on a deeply troubling mindset within the country’s conservative leadership. Former President Abdullah Gül, a co-founder of the ruling party, married his wife when she was just 15 and he was 30. Similarly, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım once spoke of his unease seeing male and female university students sitting together on benches, a view that reflects a rigid and patriarchal worldview.
For the Turkish government, it appears that the act of a journalist reporting facts is a crime worthy of imprisonment, while the sexual abuse of a child can be erased by a marriage certificate. The now-suspended bill serves as a chilling reminder of the priorities of a state drifting further from universal human rights and the rule of law.
