Marry rape victims to get clean cheat!

A bill in Turkey that would overturn men's convictions for child sex assault if they married their victim provoked fury on Friday, with critics accusing the government of encouraging rape of minors with the proposals.

The opposition, celebrities, and even an association whose deputy chairman is the daughter of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed alarm over the move.

But the government insisted the legislation was aimed at dealing with the widespread custom of child marriages and the criticism was a crude distortion of its aim.

The measures were approved in an initial parliamentary reading on Thursday and will be voted on again in a second debate in the coming days.

In an apparent bid to soften the controversy, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim later ordered the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which introduced the bill, to hold talks with the opposition in parliament on the plan, a Turkish official said.

If passed, the law would allow the release from prison of men guilty of assaulting a minor if the act was committed without "force, threat, or any other restriction on consent" and if the aggressor "marries the victim".

The legal age of consent in Turkey is 18 but child marriage is widespread, especially in the southeast.

Dozens protested the bill in central Istanbul, tearing up copies of the proposed legislation and brandishing slogans like "rape is a crime against humanity".