Speaking to the Budget and Planning Committee in Parliament early Friday, Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan-Kaya expressed her determination in the fight against domestic violence, emphasizing, "the cooperation and coordination of all relevant parties toward the 2016-2020 National Action Plan in Combating Domestic Violence Against Women."

Since a government regulation on violence prevention and monitoring centers officially came into effect earlier this year in March, Minister Sayan-Kaya said that the national action plan includes aims to enhance five key areas. "As part of the action plan, we aim to enhance five major areas including adjustments to legislation, increasing awareness and removing the stigma on domestic violence, offering protective and preventative services to empower the victims of this form of violence while adjusting and implementing changes to health services and inter-cooperative measures between institutions to develop policies in these areas," the minister said. v

Stressing that the committee's annual monitorial meeting on domestic violence against women is set to be held next month, Sayan-Kaya informed the press and deputies in Parliament that the media members and the deputies that the ministry had established a commission covering 81 provinces across Turkey titled the "Provincial Coordination of Monitoring and Assessment Commission for Combating Domestic Violence against Women."

In efforts to hone efforts on the prevention of domestic violence, the ministry has already provided educational courses to public servants, medical staff and military personnel, which Sayan-Kaya asserted will continue in 2017. Continuing on with the reiteration of the government's development plan for 2014-2018, the Family and Social Policies minister stated that the government aims to reach women's employment ratio to 31 percent and labor force participation rate to 34.9 percent by end of 2018 and 41 percent by the year of 2023.