Family

Notwithstanding changing times and crises, domestic violence statistics remains worrying. Perhaps unsurprisingly, over the past year, this social phenomenon has been talked about as an "epidemic in the pandemic."

A new social solidarity movement has been launched for women who are subjected to domestic violence and have limited access to technological devices.

The motto of the campaign, initiated by Teknosa, the Sabancı Foundation and the Federation of Women's Associations (TKDF), is "technology for women, solidarity for all."

Fewer people in Turkey got married and divorced in 2020 compared to the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said on Feb. 25.

"The number of people who got married was 542,314 in 2019. It was 487,270 in 2020, a 10.1 percent decrease [since the year before]," TÜİK said in its latest statistics on marriage and divorce rates.

As the world just got through a Feb. 14 Valentine's Day under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, Anadolu Agency spoke with a family therapist in Turkey about how the pandemic has affected both married and unmarried couples psychologically.

Therapist Güneş Küçük said that the pandemic impacted married and unmarried couples from different angles and at different levels.

About 63% of Bulgarians would not become foster parents under any conditions, and one in six would take home a child at risk if they received a salary and child benefits from the state, shows data from a nationally representative survey of Trend polling agency, commissioned by the National Association for Foster Care.

Serbia is moving ahead with legislation to regulate same-sex civil partnerships, but LGBT rights groups say the content of the law is just as important as its adoption.

Someone was taken into custody afterward

Six divorce cases have been heard in the past two days in the Regional Court of Blagoevgrad. The couples, who decided to end their relationship, officially split up and set a new anti-record. All six divorces were settled by mutual agreement, and as a motive the couples pointed to irreparable differences between them.

New legislation seeking to right many wrongs in the obsolete framework of Greek family law, particularly with regard to the custody of children in the event of separation, will be presented to cabinet by Justice Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras before heading to MPs for approval.

A bill reforming family law for the first time in about 40 years will be introduced in Parliament in the coming days, introducing joint custody of children.

The new legislation stipulates that the child can spend one-third of the time with the parent they don't live with, instead of just the occasional weekend or holiday provided for currently.