Turkey reports high number of underage marriages

Over 500,000 girls under the age of 17 were married in the past 11 years in Turkey, Turkey's Family and Social Policies Ministry said Saturday. In the past 11 years, 504,957 girls between the ages of 16 and 17 got married in Turkey, said the Family and Social Policies Ministry in a report, stressing that this figure does not include unofficial marriages. More than 40,000 underage girls got married in 2012, a rise of 7 percent from that of 2002, the Ministry said, admitting that child brides became more popular across the country in recent years. The ministry vowed to work against child marriages via schools, mosques, health centers and even by visiting people in their houses in places where the phenomenon is most common. The ministry also said it had given more police protection to the women who were victims of violence in two pilot cities of Adana and Bursa in the past year. In 2013, about 28,000 women were exposed to violence in Turkey, according to official data.