August 2019 Report
When this report was published, the number of femicides in 2019 August was 49. But after our publishing, people from social media have reached us and informed about two more femicides which happened in the same month.
Burcu Özdemir was killed with a gun in Kütahya by the father of the man she is married to.
Dudu Gevrek who was 82 years old was killed by the man she is married to with a pistol, at her home.
49 Femicides in the month of August
As 7 of the femicides committed this month were registered as suspicious, the reason for 29 of these murders weren’t determined, 3 women were murdered with economic motive, 10 were murdered for wanting to make decisions concerning their own life like wanting a divorce, breaking up or rejecting a friendship offer. As long as their perpetrators and the motives for their murders aren’t identified, as long as there isn’t a fair trial, the suspects and murderers don’t get deterrent punishment, preventive measures aren’t taken, violence keeps on spreading.
Below is the data on femicides by city:
We also want to share with you the names of our lost sisters:
and 4 more women who could not be identified…
Who were women killed by?
Perpetrators of 8 of 49 women killed in August could not be identified. 14 of them were killed by the man they were married to, 8 by a relative, 7 by the man they were in a relationship with, 8 by their ex, 2 by their father, 2 by their ex husband, 2 by their sibling, 2 by their son and 1 by her step son.
Firearms were the most common tool of murder
25 of these women were killed with a firearm, 12 women with a sharp object, 3 plunged to death, 2 were strangled, 1 was beaten, 1 got poisoned and 1 got hit with a hard object. And sadly cause of death couldn’t be determined for 4 women.
Women were mostly killed in their homes
26 of these women were killed in their home, 2 of them on their way, 2 in the hospital, one at work, one at a cafe, one at an entertainment venue, one at the park, one in the car and 6 of them in the middle of the streets. One body was found at a dam and one was found on landed property. Location of the murder hasn’t been determined for six of these women.
Women’s employment status still can’t be determined
It is hard to determine the employment statuses of these women. We think that the press should also focus on this important data. According to the data we could access, 7 of these women were working in a company, 2 of them were unemployed. The employment status of the other 40 women is unknown.
Women are murdered in different regions and cities. Women want cities where they aren’t killed.
6284 and Results
48 years old Kabire Atamaz ,mother of 3 children, was found dead at her home on 20th August. As a result of the investigation, she was murdered by Ömer Cankara about whom she filed complaints several times and for whom she demanded suspension twice.
Falma Hülya Yıldız who had lived in Ankara and had been the mother of 2 children, filed a divorce case, got suspension and protection order for Mehmet Nevzat Yıldız to whom she was married and who used violence on her. Because the Law No. 6284 was not used effectively, despite the removal and protection orders, Mehmet Nevzat Yıldız, who came home, strangled Fatma Hülya Yıldız with a bag over her head, slit her throat and assaulted her. If 6284 had been applied effectively this month, women would be alive, and children would not be without their mothers. Mothers murdered had 13 children.
What happened in the world regarding women in August?
In Romania, Ministry of Education Ecaterina Andronescu was dismissed after she said about 15 years old Alexandra Macesanu who was murdered that she should have known that she should not get into the cars of foreigners.
In Mexico, after a 17 years old woman was sexually assaulted by 4 policemen, demonstrations were organized and a group of women set fire to one floor of the police station.
In Brazil, more than 100,000 people, mostly women, marched to protest the anti-women, racist and homophobic policies of Brazilian President Bolsonaro.
According to the new regulation in Saudi Arabia, women can travel abroad without a man, and women over 21 will be able to have their passport processed without a man's permission.
3 women out of 37 person group who were working on a voluntary project in a village located in Morocco, was threatened to slit their throats by the village teacher for wearing shorts.
In Iran, 24-year-old Saba was sentenced to 20 years in prison for protesting the forced headscarf during White Wednesday movement.
Emine Bulut’s scream: 'I don’t want to die!’ covered the squares in Turkey.
#Ölmekistemiyoruz
#Wedontwanttodie
We Will End Femicide
According to the reports we prepared the numbers of murdered women in Turkey are as follows by year:
180 in 2010, 121 in 2011 when the Law No:6284 entered into force and Istanbul Convention
Action against violence against women and domestic violence was opened for signature, 210 in 2012, 237 in 2013, 294 in 2014, 303 in 2015, 328 in 2016, 409 in 2017, 440 in 2018, and 294 women were murdered in the only first 8 months of 2019.
Following Emine Bulut, 19 women were murdered. (Tuba Erkol, Emine N., Kebire Atanmaz, Bedriye Kangal, Emel Hac Hüseyin, Meryem Beykoz, Emine Beykoz, İncilay Hayal, Gülsüm Karasu, Ayşe Gür, Tuba Anlak, Meryem K, Zeynep Atagül, Selin Cebeci, Zeynep Yavuz, Halise Narin, Münevver Narin, Melike Baştürk, Maryam Hussami)
Every month, we publish the figures of femicide, anti-misogynistic discourses and practices that we keep their data on and we share them with the public. Every month we remind the authorized institutions and organizations that they should give up their negative attitudes against gender equality, terminate their anti-women and child-rhetoric discourse, and effectively implement the Law No. 6284 and the Istanbul Convention. We would like to emphasize that they should fight together with women fighting against femicide and child abuse. Since 2010, 2,816 women who have been killed by male violence that we can detect did not want to die.
38 years old Emine Bulut, who had lived in Kırıkkale, was killed by the man Fedai Baran from who she was divorced 4 years ago, by being cut her throat in front of her daughter. In the video recorded during the murder, Emine Bulut said 'I don't want to die', and her daughter cried saying 'mom please don't die mom’. Emine Bulut and her daughter's words quickly affected everyone after the murder due to the rapid spread of the video on social media. The indictment about Fedai Baran was quickly designed on the crime of manslaughter with a monstrous feeling and was accepted by the Public Prosecutor's Office in Kırıkkale. In the first statement given by the man Fedai Baran, whom she divorced, who killed Emine Bulut, said, when she insulted me, I got angry and hit her with the knife that I carry with me'.
We are well aware of previous cases of femicide that such insults and incitement are excuses made by perpetrators to get remissions. We reiterate our demand to limit the use of reductions in gender-based femicide, which is one of the important steps to stop femicide. Unfair trials, remissions and non-deterrent punishments in femicide cases pave the way for increased femicide and encourage the enemies of women. AKP spokesman Omer Celik said in his first statement that we are ready to do our part about the cases of femicide. We have been asking the relevant institutions for years to publish the data on femicide and we request effective implementation of the laws.
We said that the figures announced by Minister of the Interior Süleyman Soylu in November 2018 were much lower than the figures we had received as a result of the applications that were only in the news and we received directly. In the context of Law No. 6284, which came into force in 2011 when AKP was in power, and Istanbul Convention which came into force in 2014, we have said in each of our reports that the relevant institutions and the government do not fulfill their responsibility. At this point we have reached today, every institution we see after the murder of Emine Bulut ignores the fact that each institution has not fulfilled the responsibility on its behalf and puts the crime to another institution. We know that Law No. 6284 and the Istanbul Convention should be urgently and effectively implemented by all relevant institutions and organizations and all the component units should fulfill the responsibility. A circular for the implementation of the Istanbul Convention, which has been in force since 2014, should be prepared, communicated to the relevant departments and trainings / information studies should be organized. At the same time, violence against gender-based femicide should not be tolerated, and misogynistic explanations and practices should be abandoned immediately everywhere, both individually and institutionally.
Execution is of the Middle Ages
Our Future is the Istanbul Convention
As is the case with every event that affects the society deeply, the “death penalty” is not a solution but an outdated practice that does not protect and that does not strengthen women and children. The future of women and children is in the Istanbul Convention, which should be implemented effectively.
Following the murder of Emine Bulut, Women's Assemblies we gathered in the squares of Adana, Afyon, Ankara, Antalya, Aydın, Bursa, Çanakkale, Çorum, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, İstanbul, İzmir, Kayseri, Cyprus, Kırıkkale, Kocaeli, Konya, Kütahya In Malatya, Manisa, Mersin, Sakarya, Samsun, Tekirdağ, Trabzon and Yalova, for Emine Bulut and all the women.
Regarding the murder, President of Religious Affairs Ali Erbaş said, “Women's lives, dignity and rights are entrusted to us”. Women's lives, dignity and rights only belong to them. Women are nobody's trust. The silence of those who try to take away the lives and rights of women will keep women alive. The misogynistic statements made in this way do not ensure the safety of women.
We must also state that; since Emine Bulut’s femicide, 19 more women were killed by men’s violence. Selcan Yıldırım, who lives in Adana, is threatened to be killed by slitting her throat by the man she divorced with 4 years ago like Emine Bulut. Selcan Yıldırım said: “I want to be news before dying, not after death”.
Women want to live,
Let misogynists be silenced, and women live:
On our monthly reports, we’re stating that misogynistic discourse and applications are raising gender inequality and that is affecting femicides. Every discourse and application that is not compatible to gender equality is being used as a defense excuse in femicide lawsuits. We want to emphasize to all the institutions and organizations that it may be of their concern to abandon these misogynistic discourses and practices and implement İstanbul Convention effectively and keep away from discriminative policies.
As it was found on the books that were distributed by Gaziantep Şahinbey Municipality, there were statements such as “beat the women who are indecent”, “they shall be beaten privately not publicly" and “women shall not be beaten and kicked out. A man shall not tell anyone that he beat the woman”.
Efes Pilsen used misogynistic and discriminative advertisement strategy by releasing two beer editions, a pink bottle named “zilli (petulant)” and a yellow bottle named “delikanlı (lad)”.
Alanya Municipality in Antalya faced a public backlash for giving boys “man certificates” that are contradictory to gender equality after undergoing collective circumcision ceremony service.
Women keep fighting against femicides:
Selin Cebeci was killed during an armed assault that occurred in an entertainment venue in Balıkesir. Selin Cebeci’s mother poured out her troubles cursing individual armament saying “How is this happening I ask? How do you buy it? It is too easy that it can be bought through internet” she said.
Merve Koçer, 17 years of age, from Kayseri went missing on 2011 who turned out to have been murdered and buried by her cousin E.K. 8 years before.
Melike Erdoğan, 21 years of age, from Bayburt, was found suspiciously dead in reservoir after going missing for a couple of days.
Özge Birol, 23 years of age, from İstanbul had suspiciously died by falling off of the balcony of a house where she stayed a night with a man named M.C.O..
An unidentified woman in her 40ies was found dead in Isparta on a roadside due to wounds made by sharp and penetrative objects.
Arzu Ertan, who bought a bank repossessed property in Muğla, was killed by firearm by the man named F.D who refused to empty the house.
63 years old woman I.D, was killed using a firearm by her son M.E.D who’d just learnt that he was adopted.
In Antalya, 20 years old Kader Ç. Was stabbed in the neck and died by her brother Asilhan Ç. who stated that: “I thought that she’d pursue the road of indecency”.
35-year-old Emine Nuyan who was staying in a shelter in Ağrı was shot dead in the middle of the street by her husband Özkan Nuyan, after meeting on the pretext of divorce.
83-years-old Bedriye Kangal, who lives in Balıkesir, was stabbed to death by her grandson, Fettah S., 28, on the pretext of "money".
19-years-old Merve Kotan, who lives in Aydın, was shot dead by her partner Muhammet Gürsoy. Salih Kotan, Merve Kotan's father stated that: “Merve wanted to break-up, however she was afraid to do so”.
35-years-old Zeynep Yavuz, a mother of 4 children living in Istanbul, was stabbed to death several times by Ömer Yavuz, while they were in the stage of their divorce.
Women continue to be a subject of sexual violence:
18-year-old G.Ö. who ordered food to her house in Istanbul was sexually assaulted by the courier Akram M..
Ismail O, who spied on a house of women in Istanbul, was released under the condition of judicial control despite being detained as a result of the reaction on social media.
48-years-old Svitlana A., who came to İzmir from Ukraine, was physically and sexually assaulted by several individuals whose identities has not been identified yet.
B.B., a 25-years-old mentally and physically disabled person, who was receiving education in a private institute in Ankara, was raped by the school bus driver Hasan B.. Hasan B. was arrested.
A woman who took a cab in Kocaeli, was kidnapped to a woodland and raped by the 36-years-old cab driver R.B. He was arrested.
42-years-old M.V., living in Samsun, was subjected to sexual harassment by Ö.F.Ç. after he stalked her to her apartment and got in her building’s elevator with her.
43-years-old V.S,. living in Aydın was sexually harassed after being sedated by the fake dentist Sait Örücü.
Child Abuse Continues
- According to the report prepared by Şanlıurfa Bar Association, 378 children were abused in Şanlıurfa in the first six months of 2019. According to the report, 21 of the children aged 12-16 were pregnant.
- A 12-year-old child living in Antalya was sexually abused by a 72-year-old child’s grandfather Mestan A. Mestan A. was released 4 days after his arrest. Although child’s mother stated that the abuse was fixed by the report and the lawyer appealed the decision, the appeal against his release was rejected by the court.
- A 14-year- old girl was sexually abused by a 40-year-old female hairdresser Hasan G. many times in Antalya. Hasan G. was arrested.
- 4 children between the ages of 7-12 in Gümüşhane, were sexually abused under colour of hatch. A.C., S.C., and B.G. were released on condition of judicial control after being in custody.
- A 10-year-old child in Gaziantep was sexually abused by child’s uncle.
- A 12-year-old girl working in vineyard was sexually abused by head of workers in Manisa.
- In İstanbul, a 13-year-old İ.B. was sexually abused by the child’s neighbour 58-year-old M.C at sea. When the family complained, M.C. resorted to physical violence against child and child’s mother.
- Two mentally challenged children aged between 9 and 12 in İzmir were sexually abused by a 65-year-old person known to his family. He was arrested.
Cases in August
- Hasan İsmail Hikmet who killed Ceren Damar Şenel, a research assistant at Çankaya University Faculty of Law in January, changed his statement by using one of the discourses to get a discount on women's murder cases and said that we had a relationship.
- Burcu Çiftçi, 20-year-old mother of one child and 4.5 months pregnant, was killed by Mehmet Çiftçi whom she was married in Adana 5 years ago. In the most recent case, Mehmet Çiftçi said that I killed because she was cheating me and the court reduced the sentence to 18 years and 4 months by implementing unjust provocation and good conduct time.
- According to information in the indictment of the murder of 4-year-old Leyla Aydemir, who was found dead in Ağrı last year, a decision was taken to close the incident at the meeting which was attended by a tribal chief. Leyla's cases will begin on September 20th.
- According to the information in the indictment of the murder of 4-year-old Leyla Aydemir, who was found dead 18 days after her disappearance in Ağrı last year, a decision was taken to close the incident at the meeting to wich a tribal chief has attended. Leyla's trial will begin on September 20th.
- In 2017, 40-year-old Sevda Gül was found suspiciously drowned by the sea. Bülent Y. and his brother Hüseyin Y., who had been detained for 2 years, were acquitted without the enlightenment of the suspected death.
- Hasan and Hüseyin Sel, who attacked a car with a pregnant woman in Istanbul Pendik, were released for a while while being tried for 20 years. They celebrated the eviction decision by distributing pumpkin dessert.
- In a case of sexual violence which took place in the14th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, a court member in the rape case considered this as ‘simple sexual assault because the accused didn’t have an eroction. Accordingly, the defendant wanted a reduce on the recompense.
- Fatih Ö. who sexually harassed a female passenger during her metrobus journey in Istanbul and was tried for imprisonment of up to 9 years and 6 months but he is evacuated.
- 26-year-old Emre Yıldır, who was exposed to child abuse between the ages of 9-17, took away his own life in April. Following his release in August at his first trial, the defendant was arrested again after public reaction.
- In the case of a 5-year-old child who was abused in Küçükçekmece, the perpetrator was sentenced to 29 years of sexual abuse and detention in a single session. This decision should be precedent for all child abuse cases in order to ensure that justice is provided as soon as possible for the abusement against children.
- * In Our Monthly Report: the news about violence against women in the press,cases, new incidents and details about the women's movement are included. While news of femicides are directly reflected to the public, regardless of the complaint; news about sexual violence and child abuse, because these crimes and investigations and litigation processes are continuing, it is difficult to determine the net number. Therefore, we would like to point out that the data on child abuse and sexual violence are much more than the news that we have announced and reflected in the press. Within the scope of the Istanbul Convention, the relevant authorities of the state should determine the methods of combating violence and prevent it accordingly; these authorities do not do these regularly. We compile the applications that are reflected in the press and come directly to us and reach a number and prepare our report within this framework. We take our Women's Murder report according to the Femicide concept, put it together and evaluate it. So according to the concept of Femicide; “All female gender individuals, from the embryo to the fetus, from the baby to the child, from the adult to the elderly, are killed or forced to commit suicide by a man solely on the basis of their sex or on the basis of acts contrary to the perception of gender identity. Femisids should not be perceived as murders in which only female sex people are killed. In these murders committed with hate, what is being attacked is the female identity. ”