Fleeing the War to Turkey: The Experience of Russian and Ukrainian Women

The banner has been hanging for five years in the Turkish town of N. on the Black Sea coast. It reads, “𝗞𝗔𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗔 𝗘𝗟 𝗞𝗔𝗟-𝗞𝗔-𝗠𝗔𝗭!” (Do not hurt women!). It was put up after an increase in domestic violence in 2020. The poster evokes only a bitter smile, as support for survivors of domestic violence leaves much to be desired.

What is the social context for the female refugees from Ukraine and female migrants from Russia who were forced to flee to Turkey because of the war? The question was prompted by a personal experience. In September 2024, the local police reached out to me for assistance as an interpreter from Turkish to Russian. There, I met K., who had fled Ukraine because of the war, and her one-and-a-half-year-old son, who was born in Türkiye. I couldn’t stay away. The deeper I immersed myself in the bureaucratic and social chaos of the situation while trying to help them, the more I sought to understand the hardships faced by people with such experiences.

A Step Toward Freedom

When trying to escape an abuser, victims are often humiliated and ridiculed by the local police — that's what K. faced. We first met at the police station. She was wearing casual clothes and slippers, and her child was hastily dressed and running a fever. It all reminded me of myself fifteen years ago. I was in the same situation, still a minor, in the police station of the same Turkish town. I was wearing thin, faded gray pajamas and shyly covered my breasts with my hands as the policemen stared at my nipples visible through the pajamas. That morning, after waking up to horrible screams, I ran outside in the clothes I had slept in. Words cannot describe the helplessness of a teenager watching the people she loves destroying each other… All of this came back to me as I was helping K.

Her situation highlights the complex set of problems faced by Ukrainian refugees in Türkiye trying to escape an abuser. She met her Turkish boyfriend online; he told her he lived in Istanbul, invited her to visit, and eventually took her against her will to the town of N — in a remote province on the Black Sea. Unable to earn a living, the young woman became financially dependent on the man. When she had a child, the situation worsened: the man physically assaulted K., subjected her to restrictions, psychological manipulation, and so on. Meanwhile, his family watched her every move. 

K. tried to get help: for two years, she went to the police and tried to explain the situation using an online translator. The officers refused to accept her statement, made mocking comments about her situation, and behaved rudely. The local police officer finally contacted me for interpretation, but only under pressure from the Ukrainian Embassy in Ankara. Fortunately, K.'s mother had contacted an embassy official and asked for help in rescuing her daughter and bringing her home…

Nepotism is deeply rooted in small towns like N. Family and social connections with police officers, officials, clerks, and ticket sellers empower the aggressor. For example, the prosecutor delayed the case by claiming that he had never seen the statement that we had submitted together with K. Fortunately, we had filmed every document that we had previously submitted.

The nepotism was particularly evident when it came to the child. Little M. had no documents, only discharge papers from a maternity hospital. The Ukrainian Embassy requested the child's documents from the local registry office to avoid further complications on the journey to Ankara, where members of the Ukrainian diaspora and the Red Crescent were waiting for the victim. However, the registry office refused to issue the documents to K., although she had full rights without the father's consent as a mother since they had never married.

Another major obstacle was K.'s expired residence permit. To document the injuries, they had to travel to a hospital in the provincial administrative center, three hours by serpentine road from the victim's home. This forced K. to run from one office to another in the heat with her sick child in her arms. While navigating bureaucratic hurdles, she took enormous risks because of her aggressive partner and his relatives. She carefully planned her trips to coincide with her partner's work hours and when his mother was out with her friends. K. also had neither a suitcase nor money for an intercity bus ticket. That is why it took us four days to prepare for the escape. We were fortunate that K.'s former partner did not resort to physical violence during those four days when I had the opportunity to help her.

In the mountains, on the way from N. our minibus was stopped by the police. K. had to hide under the bags with her child to avoid trouble because of her expired residence permit. In another city, K. and the child were met by an embassy official and continued their journey. A month later, I received word that K. and M. had made it home to Ukraine, where they had always wanted to be.

Domestic Violence in Türkiye
By the end of 2024, Turkey had witnessed a wave of protests against femicide, triggered by the brutal murder of two young women in broad daylight in the busy Fatih district of Istanbul. Their names were Ikbal Uzuner and Ayşenur Halil. Semih Çelik killed his ex-partner and a new partner and then took his own life. Prior to the incident, the young man had been hospitalized five times in psychiatric institutions, had disappeared twice, and had attempted suicide once.

With the news of the crime, the hashtag #istanbulsozlesmesiyasatir (Istanbul convention saves lives) went viral on the Turkish Twitter segment: In 2021, the country withdrew from the convention, which aims to combat domestic and gender-based violence. Through this campaign, the people of Turkey are trying to raise awareness about the vulnerability of victims.

Violence against women is a deeply rooted issue in Turkey. First, gender inequality creates an unfavorable environment. According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index, Turkey ranked 129th out of 146 countries in 2023.

Second, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been steering the country toward Islamization and promoting conservative views, while his Justice and Development Party (Turkish acronym AK PARTİ) seeks to entrench patriarchal norms. Erdoğan is notorious for his sexist remarks, such as comparing abortion to murder, and he openly expresses his misogynistic views.

Third, the extent of violence against women in Turkish society is staggering. Data from ŞÖNİM, the state-run Monitoring and Prevention Violence Center under the Ministry of Family and Social Services, reveals that women filed 1,534,128 reports of violent treament in 2012-2024. In comparison, 139,000 cases were reported by men, and nearly 143,000 cases involved children. In addition, with the support of the Turkish branch of the United Nations Population Fund, data from 2007 to 2021 has shown:

Eight out of ten victims of violence in Turkey are women. In 90% of cases, the perpetrator is a man. In 63% of cases, the perpetrator is the spouse, while in 21% of cases, it is another family member.

The Domestic Violence Hotline, a project under the Federation of Women's Associations of Türkiye (TKDF), has handled more than 28,000 requests.

These are the documented cases, but many victims never report the abuse to the police because they believe it is considered shameful: “It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest,”. What's more, those who do seek help don't always get it as police officers often don't take women's complaints seriously or try to reconcile with partners or family members, sometimes with tragic outcomes.

The Kadın cinayetleri durduracağız platformu (We Will Stop Femicide) platform has been tracking femicides and what is called “suspicious deaths of women” since 2010. A suspicious death occurs under unusual circumstances and had not been resolved by either medical or criminal investigation. In 2024, activists recorded 394 femicides and 259 suspicious deaths of women. This compares with 300 femicides and 171 suspicious deaths of women in 2020.

In 2021, local prosecutors attempted to block a platform that collected statistics on violence against women, arguing that the website was “engaged in illegal and immoral activities.” Fortunately, the Istanbul court hearing the case sided with the activists and ruled against shutting down the platform.

The tracking of cases of femicide and suspicious deaths of women, as well as the compilation of these incidents, is done voluntarily by members of the feminist movement, which means that these data do not fully reflect the true extent of the problem. This is due to the lack of sufficient public information from government agencies. In addition to the Kadın cinayetleri durduracağız platformu, femicides are also monitored by Anıt Sayaç (Memory Counter), which aggregates media mentions of such crimes. However, this data is not always accurate. For example, if a case is reopened and an article about it is published a year later, Anıt Sayaç will count the victim's name again.

The challenges of collecting information even on homicide victims, who may be the easiest to count, suggest a troubling underreporting of gender-based violence that does not result in death. Not all acts of aggression result in court cases, criminal investigations, or media coverage, making it difficult to follow the trail of violence. The data presented here reflect only the tip of the iceberg.

Statistics show that even recent amendments to the Criminal Code have not improved the situation. For example, Article 123/A on stalking was introduced in 2022, and Article 82 was amended to include a provision on the intentional murder of a pregnant woman, punishable by life imprisonment in a high-security prison. In November 2023, President Erdoğan signed a 17-point circular aimed at preventing violence against women, but these measures are mostly administrative. Although Law No. 6284, On the Protection of the Family and the Prevention of Violence Against Women, exists, it is not widely applied in practice. For example, in 2024, twenty women under protection orders were killed.

Self-defense training is one form of support for victims, but local government initiatives in this area are often superficial. The lack of an effective training infrastructure is alarming and raises questions about the integrity of other government aid projects. A recent example illustrates this: a free self-defense course for women was organized by the local government of the Bayraklı district of Izmir. Anyone interested could join, but unfortunately, the program lasted less than a month and a half. It is impossible to teach anything meaningful in such a short time. Despite this, the participants, staff, and trainer were willing to continue the training. However, the assistant to the district director said, “Don't be upset, soon there will be a course on how to make face masks at home for women.” Which is absurd. It gives the impression that government agencies are more concerned with producing attractive reports than with providing real help.

But there are also truly effective initiatives. For example, KADES is the official free app of the Turkish Ministry of Interior, which has been in use since 2022. When the panic button is pressed, KADES sends the user's geolocation to the police, who then arrive at the scene within 10 minutes. The app is designed to streamline the process of preventing violence against women and children. Before activation, a warning appears on the smartphone screen stating that false alarms and defamation may result in criminal charges and a potential prison sentence of up to three years.

In addition to KADES, there is the Kırmızı Işık app offered by the Vodafone mobile network. With a single tap, users can contact the police, gendarmerie, and organizations that provide support to victims of domestic violence.

The Situation of Migrant and Refugee Women in Turkey in the Context of Violence

Citizens of Turkey do not have sufficient guarantees of safety from the state, and small advances in the prevention of domestic violence, when they occur, are often only on paper. In this context, migrant and refugee women have even fewer options for protection. In its reports on the status of refugees, the United Nations specifically highlights that women and children, who are generally more vulnerable to human rights violations, are also among the most affected by sexualized and gender-based violence.

Turkey became one of the most popular relocation destinations for citizens of Russia and Ukraine after February 2022. Due to its simplified visa regime, favorable climate, and large diaspora, many have chosen the country for either temporary or permanent residence. Even before the full-scale invasion, these southern shores hosted numerous Ukrainian and Russian migrants. According to the Ukrainian Embassy, 38,000 Ukrainians of both sexes were living in Türkiye as of February 24, 2022. According to official Turkish data, 844,000 Ukrainian refugees entered Turkey after Russia invaded Ukraine, but by December 2023, most of them had either relocated to third countries or returned home. Currently, 23,000 Ukrainian women live permanently in Turkey. As for Russian women, their numbers have been gradually decreasing. Turkish migration services report that from a peak of 150,000 residence permits issued to Russians by the end of 2022, the number dropped to 90,000 by September 2024. For comparison, about 66,000 Russians were living in Türkiye in 2021.

The war forced many people to flee their homes in a hurry: Ukrainian refugees escaped the immediate threat to their lives, and Russian migrants fled due to repression and/or opposition to the war. As a result, women found themselves in a more vulnerable position. This vulnerability was exploited by recruiters involved in sex trafficking. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian published an article exposing the activities of one such group. Financially vulnerable Ukrainian women were lured into sexual slavery through Telegram channels with promises of jobs in Turkey.

Moreover, social isolation — an unfortunate reality for many expatriates — exacerbates the danger in cases of domestic violence and increases the likelihood of being the target of an abuser’s trap. Exclusion from society deeply fuels a sense of helplessness, making it even more difficult to seek help. Lack of language skills, different cultural values, unfamiliar customs and religion, combined with financial and bureaucratic dependencies such as expired visas or residence permits, as well as others’ control over Internet and phone, is a common scenario in abuse situations. It makes escape in a foreign country much more difficult for victims. All of these factors empower the abuser. Unfortunately, Turkish legislation does not provide any special protection for migrant women and refugees.

Organizations such as Kadın Dayanışma Vakfı (the Women's Solidarity Foundation) and Mor Çatı Kadın Sığınağı Vakfı (the Purple Roof Women's Shelter Foundation) help to support vulnerable groups. These organizations provide a range of services to victims of domestic violence, effectively fulfilling a state function. Every year, the Women's Solidarity Foundation processes approximately 300 requests related to gender-based violence, mainly filed by Turkish citizens but also by foreign women. However, staff told the author that no Russian or Ukrainian women had sought their help between 2020 and 2024.The Purple Roof Shelter receives approximately 1,300 requests each year, with Russian and Ukrainian women only reaching the shelter in 2022. These organizations note that foreign women rarely contact them, although they are willing to provide interpreters if needed.

Typically, migrant women and refugees become disillusioned with the police and local institutions and feel socially isolated. They seek to escape violent situations through diaspora communities, thematic online groups, and NGOs from their home countries. Posts from female individuals in abusive relationships occasionally appear in Facebook groups and other social networks for new immigrant residents in Turkey. Some of the victims reach out to Kovcheg, the largest foreign community of Russians with an anti-war stance, which directs them to the female volunteers of the Labyrinth Initiative. These volunteers have compiled detailed guidelines for dealing with situations of violence, tailored to the legal and cultural context of specific countries, including Turkey, along with necessary contacts.

For this article, I analyzed lists of murdered and suspiciously deceased women provided by the Kadın Cinayetleri Durduracağız Platformu and the Anıt Sayaç aggregator to explore the trends in gender-based violence against Ukrainian and Russian women in Turkey since February 2022. For example, Anıt Sayaç reported three Russian and two Ukrainian citizens among the women who died in such circumstances in 2024. The pervasiveness of partner violence was deeply demoralizing, as no social status provided immunity: the social portraits of victims ranged from a shaman to a businesswoman, and from an activist to a model. Some victims, such as Irina Dvizova and her daughter Dayana, had reported threats and stalking to the Turkish police before their deaths. Nevertheless, the perpetrator, Irina's ex-husband, was arrested but later released.

It is important to note that Anıt Sayaç’s data on femicide cases is incomplete and not quite accurate. Among foreign women who have died as a result of gender-based violence in Turkey, the majority are citizens of Uzbekistan, with 7 media mentions in 2024. However, the reports do not include Syrian women, for example, although Turkey's Directorate of Migration has recorded approximately 3.8 million Syrian nationals entering the country at the beginning of 2023. Yet murders of Syrian women have occurred. In these cases, multiple vulnerabilities intersect, particularly gender and nationality. For example, in 2021 and 2022, Al Jazeera reported a spike in violence, including cases of fatal violence, against Syrian refugees.

Among the many tragedies in 2022-2024, two femicides in Turkey were directly related to war: the death of Russian anti-war feminist and researcher Anastasiya Emelyanova and the deaths of Ukrainian six-year-old Tanya Navrotskaya and her four-year-old brother Kirill.

Anastasiya Emelyanova, who fled Russia because of her political views, died of blood loss in the town of Erzurum in September 2023. According to the prosecutor, her death followed an argument with her fiancé, Mohammad Nizar Arnabeh. When she stopped responding, her worried friends searched for her for three days. They tried to file a missing persons report with the police, but officers initially refused to accept it. Later, they checked the database and found Anastasiya listed among the deceased. In this terrible situation, her relatives also faced the neglect of the Russian consul in Turkey, Sergey Tamayev. In the spring of 2024, the court acquitted Mohammad Nizar Arnabeh. However, in November, reports surfaced about a review of the case: a lawyer from a Turkish human rights organization successfully challenged the acquittal, and in January 2025, the case was reopened. Meanwhile, Anastasiya's support group points out that the initial investigation was mishandled, leaving the exact circumstances of that evening unclear.

A similar tragic fate befell six-year-old Tanya Navrotskaya from Ukraine. In May 2022, the girl and her brother were stabbed to death by their father in Alanya. Alexey Navrotskiy is a vice-rector of V. Karazin University and a former deputy of the Kharkiv City Council. His wife, Yuliya, with whom he had argued before grabbing the knife, managed to escape and call for help. During the trial, Navrotskiy claimed that he had been suffering from depression since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and had been taking tranquilizers.

The vulnerability of migrant women is clear, even though there is no official data on the number of Ukrainian refugees and Russian migrant women who are victims of domestic violence in Türkiye.

Since February 24, 2022, we have been getting disturbing and tragic news in the media almost every day. With each passing year of the war, violence has become an increasingly familiar part of our lives. As a result, it may seem that gender-based violence against vulnerable migrant and refugee women in Turkey is not a significant issue, and the cases that emerge in the media are isolated incidents. However, the reality is that violence against women has become so normalized that it no longer receives the attention it deserves. Many of these tragedies could have been prevented if the government had been more responsible in its treatment of both its citizens and foreign women. The mechanisms for helping people in the provinces of Turkey are particularly deficient: laws are often not enforced, NGO support is inaccessible, and social institutions and patriarchal culture create additional barriers.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a “happy ending” in cases of domestic violence, even if the perpetrator is punished or the victim can escape to safety.

The impact of being abused, especially by a loved one, is irreparable.

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