Violence against women has seen a dramatic increase under Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with over 15,557 women murdered in the country since the Islamist party came to power in 2002, Birgün newspaper reported.

A total of 66 women were murdered in the country in 2002 with the figure increasing to at least 474 in 2019, it said citing a report prepared by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Sezgin Tanrıkulu on the occasion of March 8, International Women’s Day.

At least 49 women were killed in the first two months of 2020, according to the report.

Most women who are murdered in Turkey in 2019 were killed in safe spaces by people they knew, while harassment of women took place in public places by people unknown to them, the CHP lawmaker’s report also found.

The number of women in Turkey who have been the victim of violence has surged by 50 percent, from 145,000 in 2015 to nearly 220,000 in 2018, according to Interior Ministry data.

Nearly 40 percent of Turkish women face physical or sexual violence from a partner, according to the United Nations.