Honor Related Violence (Turkey)
| Honor Related Violence by Country: | |
| Afghanistan • Australia • Belgium • Canada • Denmark • Egypt • Finland • France • Germany • India • Iran • Iraq • Israel • Italy • Jordan • Kuwait • Lebanon • Libya • Norway • Pakistan • Palestinian Authority area • Russia • Saudi Arabia • Somalia • Spain • Sri Lanka • Sudan • Sweden • Switzerland • Syria • Turkey • United Arab Emirates • United Kingdom • United States • Yemen | |
[edit] Statistics on Honor Related Violence and Killings
Diana Y Vitoshka, University of California, 2010
The Times of India, July 11, 2010
Christoph Schlingensief, Welt Online, October 27, 2006
[edit] Turkish Penal Code
Human rights groups state the recent trend of forced suicides is an unintended and sinister consequence of the EU's pressure on Turkey to stiffen it's punishments against honor killings.
[edit] Guldunya Toren, shot to death, February 26, 2004
Hospital sources told BBC News Online that Guldunya Toren, 24, was being treated after being shot and left for dead, when the second attack happened.
After the first attack, which happened on Wednesday, she told journalists she feared for her life.
Early on Thursday morning a man claiming to be a relative told staff he wanted to visit her, before shooting her dead.BBC News, February 27, 2004
Tören's brothers then attempted to kill her. She escaped her brothers’ first murder attempt, but was later shot dead by her brothers at a hospital where she was receiving treatment.
. . .
Following the birth of her baby, Tören had sought refuge from her family at a police station in İstanbul, where she was promised by police that she would “not be killed.” However, police then sent Tören to the home of her uncle, Mehmet Tören, in the Fatih district, where she was later attacked by her brothers.
She escaped the attack and was taken to Bakırköy State Hospital with serious injuries. In her testimony delivered to police at the hospital, Güldünya said her brothers had tried to kill her, but added that she would not file a complaint. Two days after the first attack, Tören’s two brothers then shot her in the head twice.
Tören, who left her village in Bitlis and moved to her uncle’s home in İstanbul, in her testimony on Oct. 8, 2003 said she had filed a complaint against her uncle, who she alleged had threatened her with death.Today's Zaman, November 14, 2011
[edit] Naile Erdas, shot to death, 2006
In its verdict, a court in the eastern city of Van sentenced the murder victim's brother to life in jail for the 2006 murder to cleanse the family honour, the Van Women's Association said.
The girl's father, mother and two uncles were also given life sentences for instigating the murder, while a third uncle was jailed for 16 years and eight months for failing to report the murder in one of the heaviest sentences handed down in Turkey for such a killing.
"We can say this verdict is a first in terms of the harshness of the sentences and the fact that the entire family was convicted," Mazlum Bagli, a researcher into honour killings at the Dicle University, said.
Zelal Ozgokce of the Van Women's Association also welcomed the sentence as an appropriate deterrent. "It is very good that the entire family was punished for the crime," she said. "It will serve as a deterrent. People will become aware that they will face the consequences of an honour killing."
Erdas became pregnant as a result of a rape but concealed her condition until she was hospitalised for a severe headache, when doctors determined she was pregnant.
When the family made threats and offered bribes to get the girl back, doctors decided to keep her in the hospital and informed police and the prosecutor's office.
One week after Erdas gave birth, the prosecutor agreed to send her home after the girl's father promised she would not be harmed. But she was shot dead by her brother a few hours after returning home.
In "honour killings", generally prevalent among Turkey's Kurdish community, a so-called family council names a member to murder a female relative considered to have sullied the family honour. In most cases this is because of an extra-marital affair.
But there have been cases where those killed have been rape victims or women who simply talked to strange men or requested a song on the radio.Agence France-Presse, January 13, 2009
[edit] Zulfinar Baycinar, shot to death, May 2006
But now Baycinar's husband is on trial for murder. Prosecutors say she was killed because she dared to oppose against her husband's wish to take a second wife, refusing to bow to tradition and know her place.
Such mysterious "suicides" have always been treated with suspicion in southeast Turkey, but they have increased so dramatically in recent months that the UN has launched an inquiry. Yakin Erturk, its special rapporteur on violence against women, is visiting the region to investigate Mrs Baycinar's case and other allegations that women deemed to have sullied a family's
"honour" are being ordered to kill themselves.
. . .
She says that where once there would be the occasional whiff of suspicion surrounding a suicide, now she hears of odd cases almost every other day.
Suna Erdem, The Times Online, May 25, 2006
[edit] Tugba Tunc, shot with a shotgun and fell into coma for two weeks, June 5, 2006
Tugba came to Sweden from Turkey when she was very young. She was helping her parents to look after three other children. She could not finish her high-school studies because of the problems at home. Then her family asked her to go back to Turkey and marry her cousin.
On 21st April 2006 she flew to Turkey along with one of her brothers. When relatives put pressure on Tugba to marry her cousin, she refused, and as a consequence she was threatened with death. On 5th June 2006 she arranged a date with her boyfriend in a secret place in the park (pictured above). There she was shot with a shotgun and fell into coma for two weeks. Unfortunately, her travel insurance expired just the day before shooting and she was in a very difficult financial situation.
A close friend of hers, a Swedish girl named Stina Bengtsson made a big effort to find legal and financial assistance to her. Tugba’s uncle did his best to help her too; he borrowed money and provided 65 blood bags. The Swedish foreign ministry agreed to give her a loan in order to cover her hospital expenses in Turkey. But there was not enough money to pay for her flight back to Sweden. Her friend Stina succeeded in convincing the insurance company to help Tugba on a humanitarian basis.
. . .
IKWRO, December 21, 2006
[edit] Esra Aksel, killed, December 2006
Today's Zaman, January 19, 2009
[edit] Asya (Maria) Ahmad Muhammad and her family, beaten and threatened with death, July 9, 2006
Judge Satar Sofe convicted 14-year-old Asya Ahmad Muhammad of murder at the trial’s first hearing on February 7 in Dohuk’s juvenile court.
Muhammad’s defense lawyer appealed the ruling on February 17, questioning Sofe’s conclusion that the killing had been intentional.“The court should consider Maria’s [Muhammad’s Christian name] case unintentional killing because she didn’t intend to kill her uncle,” Akram Mikhael Al-Najar told Compass.
The lawyer said Muhammad’s five-year sentence was light, considering that Iraq’s penal code invokes the death penalty for committing murder.
“Since her uncle provoked her and kicked and abused her, the court appreciated these situations and decreased her punishment,” Al-Najar said. The lawyer expects the Kurdish regional Court of Cassation, northern Iraq’s highest court, to rule on the appeal within three months.
Even if the appeal is turned down, Al-Najar told Compass that Muhammad could be released after serving only three quarters of her five-year sentence.
Muhammad stabbed her paternal uncle with a kitchen knife last July when he came to her family’s kitchen utensil store on the outskirts of Dohuk and began beating her, her mother and younger brother.
Sayeed Muhammad’s Muslim family claimed that he attacked his relatives in order to restore “honor” supposedly lost because his female in-laws were working in public. But Asya Muhammad’s father and lawyer said that the real motive for the attack was religious.
Asya Muhammad’s father, Ahmad, told Compass that his brother had previously tried to murder him five times, angered by his conversion to Christianity.
In the wake of Sayeed Muhammad’s death, Asya Muhammad’s grandparents called for her father to be killed. External mediators later convinced the grandparents that Asya Muhammad’s father had nothing to do with his brother’s death, leading the elderly couple to demand their granddaughter’s death and a large sum instead.
Upon hearing these threats, Asya Muhammad’s parents and siblings went into hiding. Her mother and three younger brother’s have now returned home, though her father continues to reside at an undisclosed location.
Lawyer Al-Najar said that the family is no longer afraid of being attacked.
“But if Maria was released from jail, she would be in danger, of course, and she would have to live far from those terrorists [her grandparents],” Al-Najar told Compass.
A Muslim cleric in Mosul, Asya Muhammad’s grandfather attended the February 7 hearing with his wife to testify against his granddaughter. The elderly cleric was present last year when his granddaughter grabbed a store knife and plunged it into her uncle’s chest while he was tearing at her hair.
Asya Muhammad’s lawyer said that if her appeal is rejected, she will finish out her sentence in Dohuk’s juvenile prison. Al-Najar described her situation in jail as “good,” saying that she has the opportunity to study and take computer courses.
But one Christian in Dohuk told Compass that Asya Muhammad’s situation is far from ideal. As the only female minor in the prison, the source said it was uncertain whether jail officials would allow her to attend classes at the all-male school.Compass Direct, March 2, 2007
[edit] Sevil O, stabbed 27 times, May 2007
On Wednesday Arif Ç. was sentenced by the Bursa 2nd Criminal Court to life imprisonment in solitary confinement with no possibility of parole for the crime of premeditated murder. Arif Ç claimed before the ruling that his daughter had committed suicide, saying she had suffered from psychological problems. Declaring that his daughter returned home 13 days after she had fled, Arif Ç. said: “Just when we went to make a missing person report at the gendarmerie my daughter stabbed herself. I am innocent.”
But the court assembly, considering the forensic report and the impossibility that a person could stab himself or herself in the back, did not rule in his favor.Hamza Erdoğan, Today's Zaman, May 12, 2007
[edit] Hulya Tas, killed, July 2007
Today's Zaman, January 19, 2009
[edit] Dilek A and Alper Ozdemir, shot to death, January 3, 2008
Today's Zaman, January 19, 2009
[edit] Sati Korkmak, strangled to death with a television cable, February 14, 2009
. ..
Korkmak's lawyers repeated allegations of adultery resulting from the rumours about Satı Korkmak. Referring to the "Turkish family structure" and "traditional values", the joint attorneys asked, "If we do not apply unjust provocation to a case like this, where else are we going to apply it?" Despite the defence of this familiar "moral", the prosecutor did not mention mitigation of punishment because of "unjust provocation" in his final speech. The judge decreed for applying mitigation for "good conduct" and "regret" only, so he converted the sentence of "aggravated life imprisonment" into "lifelong imprisonment".
Feminists had monitored the case and gathered together with the Karatay family in front of the court house prior to the hearing and protested against women killings and mitigation for "unjust provocation".Yonca Cingoz, BİA News, November 19, 2009
[edit] Medime Memi, buried alive, December 2009
So-called "honour killings" take place every year in Turkey despite government moves to stamp out the practice.
Two months after police found Medine's body buried in the garden of her family home, a team of doctors at a university in Malatya has completed the post-mortem examination.
According to a source who has seen their report, there was only minor bruising on her body, and no evidence of her being drugged.
Her hands had been tied behind her back, and they discovered large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach. The autopsy has concluded that she was almost certainly buried alive.
The police went to her home after a neighbour reported that Medine had not been seen for a month. They found her body in a hole, newly covered with concrete, next to the hen-house.
A local organisation that campaigns against honour killings said the victim, one of 10 children, had gone three times to the police to complain that she was being beaten, but she was sent back to her family each time.
. .
Jonathan Head, BBC News, February 5, 2010
[edit] Seyma G, strangled to death, June 2010
Her brother Y.G. was caught by police and then arrested July 16. According to the Diyarbakir police, the suspects in the murder were determined after an examination of the crime scene revealed footprints in the area and fingerprints on the tape put over the victim's mouth. The victim had reportedly been staying in a women's shelter after being subjected to violence at home.
Family members allegedly found her after they learned she had left the shelter. Her brother, who is accused in the murder, had previously been detained for being a member of the illegal Muslim organization Hizb ut-Tahrir.ANSAmed, July 22, 2010
[edit] Hatice Fırat, stabbed more than 40 times, February 28, 2011
. . .
The body of Hatice Fırat was found Monday in the Mediterranean province. It is alleged that she ran away with her boyfriend Feb. 3 but was eventually located by her family. The girl’s brother, Mahsun Fırat, is suspected of stabbing Hatice Fırat more than 40 times following an alleged decision by the family to kill the girl for besmirching the family’s honor.
. . .
After the girl allegedly escaped with her boyfriend, she was spotted by a friend of Mahsun Fırat, who called the latter to say he had seen Hatice Fırat in Mersin’s Mezitli district.
According to reports, Mahsun Fırat told him to chase her and added that he would be there soon.
Mahsun Fırat reportedly met his sister at a restaurant in Mezitli where he tried to convince her that he had good intentions, the news agency said.
While Mahsun Fırat allegedly tried to calm his sister down, she told him that she was happy with her boyfriend. During their conversation, Mahsun Fırat told her that he could keep their secret and convinced her to indicate where they were hiding. Hatice Fırat then brought her brother and his friend to the location, the agency reported.
The brother and his friend eventually left the house but Mahsun Fırat informed the family about the girl, according to the report.
The Fırat family then gathered to discuss the situation and allegedly decided to kill the runaway daughter. Mahsun Fırat then reportedly called his sister and offered to take a walk along the coast.
The siblings reportedly met in Mezitli’s Viranşehir neighborhood, where Mahsun Fırat allegedly killed Hatice Fırat before dumping her body in a nearby river.Hurriyet Daily News, March 2, 2011
[edit] Servet Tas, shot to death, November 14, 2011
Güldünya Tören’s brothers, İrfan and Ferit Tören, killed their sister in an attempt to “cleanse their family honor” in İstanbul in 2004. then 22, had a child with her boyfriend before marriage.
. . .
The man thought to be father of Tören’s child, Servet Taş (38), was also killed on Monday morning by two people in the Sultanbeyli district of İstanbul. The suspects, one of them is believed to be Tören’s father, killed Taş, shooting him six times in the shoulder and head.
Today's Zaman, November 14, 2011
[edit] H. D., strangled to death, December 2012
The incident came to light on Dec. 17 when police in the province found a dead body. The deceased was determined to have been choked to death, in an autopsy carried out by a local morgue. During the course of a police investigation the body was identified to be that of a young woman known only by the initials H. D. Interrogation by police of H.D.'s family and relatives revealed that she had fallen victim to an honor killing. The murder reportedly occurred as a result of a decision made by the family after she was found to be pregnant after being raped by two of her cousins.
The police report said the family of the young woman brought her to the side of a small lake without explaining why, before strangling her and throwing her body into the water.
Honor killings are amongst the most shocking crimes in Turkey today. In the practice, when a girl's behavior is deemed to have stained her family's honor, she may be killed by a male relative.
Often honor killings are not a heat-of-the-moment crime: the family members may gather together to form a family court, pass the death sentence on the young woman and nominate a young male relative to carry out the deed. He faces ostracism from his family unless he follows through.
Seven people were arrested by police in the Batman incident. The grandfather of the young woman is suspected as the instigator of the crime and her two uncles as the perpetrators.
The police have launched a search for the two men who raped H.D., including a DNA test to determine which of them impregnated the young woman after they are found.Todays Zaman, December 26, 2012
