Hurriyet published an article by Murat Yetkin entitled 'Child brides also linked to Kurdish problem.' "Being one of Turkey’s leading industrialists, Güler Sabancı has also committed herself to social work at national and international matters. One of the international schemes she is deeply involved is stopping child marriages across the world, in pursuit of which the Sabancı Foundation that she chairs is in cooperation with a number of other institutions, including the Clinton Foundation," the article begins.
According to Sabanci, the problem is related to education and poverty problems, as well as inequality between regions both on the global and national scales. "It is a lesser problem in prosperous and well-educated societies. Among Council of Europe countries, Turkey is second only to Georgia, with 32 percent of all brides being under the age of 18, for example. However, Sabancı also revealed that this average was more than 50 percent in the mostly Kurdish populated east and southeast of Turkey (the main factor for Turkey’s overall average of 32 percent). This region is the most hit by the 30-year-long armed campaign launched by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)," the article reads.
"It is interesting that almost every issue in Turkey nowadays, from Iraqi oil to child brides, is somehow linked to the Kurdish problem, which is one indication that there is a will, for perhaps the first time in Turkish society, to get the problem solved and move on," the author concludes.
