President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a written statement Tuesday on the occasion of today's International Women's Day, highlighting the need to combat violence targeting women.

The president, who championed more measures to curb domestic violence and played in TV ads to raise awareness on the issue, described it as "a crime against humanity" in the message.

"We have to work harder to completely eliminate violence against women. It needs a change of mindset and the state, universities and civic society have an important duty to bring a solution to this issue. I believe we will resolve it with the power we draw from our civic values based on our history and culture," he said.

Erdoğan stated that women's rights in Turkey improved significantly compared to before 2002 - the year the Justice and Development (AK) Party was elected - and the education rate among girls and the female employment rate increased, also adding that the number of female lawmakers tripled. "Still, these improvements are not enough," he said.