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Currently there are 38 shelters with a capacity of 550 women being operated by civil society organizations and municipalities, although the law requires that every municipality with a population of 50,000 or greater must have shelters for women; this means there should be at least 205 such shelters. Eight new women’s shelters to be established in Turkey, in a cooperative effort by the Ministry of the Interior, the European Union and the United Nations, eight new women’s shelters will be established in cities throughout Turkey. The shelters will be constructed in Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Istanbul, Izmir and Samsun, and combined will have the capacity to house 500 women.

The shelter project aims to encourage the municipalities to fulfill their responsibility in this regard. It will cost 11.8 million euros and is scheduled for completion at the end of 2009. The Ministry of the Interior will finance 20 percent of the cost, while the rest will be funded by the EU. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will give technical support to the project.

Project coordinator Nazik Isık emphasized that their aim is to contribute to protecting the human rights of women and assist those who have faced domestic violence, adding that they want to encourage the municipalities to open more shelters. She said the eight cities were picked for their location, public transportation infrastructure, the willingness of the municipalities and in consideration of the advice of women’s associations.

UNFPA gender programs national coordinator Meltem Agduk said although the local administrations are willing to open shelters, they don’t have adequate knowledge or experience to do so. She noted that merely opening a shelter is not enough; saying that there must be certain standards and those personnel must be well trained. A sub-initiative of the shelter projects costing 1.36 million euros aims to fulfill the latter requirement. The personnel of the shelters will be trained as well as those running a telephone hotline for domestic violence.

According to a survey conducted by the Scientific and Technological Research Council
of Turkey (TUBİTAK) last year, although domestic violence is a widespread phenomenon in Turkey, half of the women subjected to it do not tell anyone. One out of six male university graduates are the perpetrators of domestic violence and 12 percent of female university graduates are subjected to domestic violence, revealing that the problem is not only one of the uneducated.

Saturday, May 24 2008 @ 09:56 AM Central Daylight Time

Suleyman Karaman Turkish State Railways General Manager, met with Hyundai Rotem CEO Yeo Sung Lee during his visit to Seoul to see the first diesel locomotives that TCDD had ordered from Hyundai Rotem. The latter produces railway vehicles, defense products and plant equipment. Representatives of South Korean multinationals Hyundai Rotem and the SK Group have said they have confidence in the Turkish economy and will proceed with their planned investments in the country despite fluctuations in the market.

Karaman said they were going to increase the production capacity of EUROTEM, the joint venture of TCDD and Hyundai Rotem for high-speed train production in Turkey. He noted that Hyundai Rotem had to make overseas investments to access the Middle Eastern, European and West Asian markets and that the company had chosen Turkey as one of these investments, which had presented a great opportunity for both the TCDD and Hyundai Rotem.

Lee stated that Turkey is important for his company and that Hyundai Rotem had chosen Turkey as the second overseas investment base after the US. "In the end we invested in America and Europe; EUROTEM will not just serve the Turkish market," he said, adding that trains will be exported to Turkey's neighboring countries.
Lee said currently the main difficulty is the uncertainty over raw material prices; however, he noted, Hyundai Rotem has been in the business for 50 years and has the necessary experience to endure fluctuations in the market. "Railway investments are long-term investments and that's why the fluctuations will not affect our investment plans in Turkey," he emphasized.

Karaman also visited the telecommunications, energy and construction conglomerate SK Group. Group Vice President Seok Jae Seo said the group is interested in transportation projects in Turkey and is planning to make investments in this area. Seo noted that the SK Group is planning to participate with a Turkish partner in a tender for a second underwater tunnel spanning the Bosporus. The Transportation Ministry will accept bids for new motor vehicle crossing on June 30. He said the group is also interested in a Gulf of İzmit bridge project and a Gebze-İzmir toll road project.

In response to a question over whether he had concerns over the condition of the Turkish economy, Seo told reporters the group does not see a risk in Turkey, adding that their studies in Turkey had determined that the investment environment would meet their expectations.