A Nation in Mourning: The Rising Tide of Femicides in Türkiye

Written by U. O. – A sociologist from Türkiye

The Femicides, Then and Now

These recent atrocities have been a breaking point for the women of Türkiye that no longer feel safe walking down the street not even in the very neighborhoods they grew up in. There have been numerous protests and public outcry which reached a breaking point following the double femicide of two 19 year old girls (İkbal and Ayşenur) by a male murderer of the same age on 04.10.24. The victims were the current and ex-girlfriend of the murderer and were murdered within hours of each other. Following the Murders the killer went on to delimb his victims in a gruesome manner to fit a grotesque design he’d drawn prior. Ayşenur was his first victim and İkbal was the second who was tragically murdered in public in broad daylight on the ancient walls of Istanbul while the police did not arrive on time and İkbal’s mother was left pleading for her daughter’s life. The killer the preceded to behead İkbal and throw her head from the walls then committed suicide by jumping afterwards. 

The manner that these murders were committed in created immediate public outcry especially after news broke out that just a few days ago on the early hours of that Tuesday (01.10.24) the two men that had attempted to rape a woman at the central Beyoğlu district of İstanbul were let go despite the whole attempt having been recorded on security cameras at the time. It soon turned out the victim in this case withdrew her complaint because she was scared into doing so. Following these news and the public response the perpetrators were arrested again and the Beyoğlu Municipality said that they would became a plaintiff to the case. 

Just around a week ago to these events another highly publicised femicide took place in İstanbul, this time a 27 year old female police officer (Şeyda Yılmaz) was shot by a suspect she was pursuing, a 19 year old male who already had 26 different crimes on his record. The mother of the murderer also made a statement saying that her son is a drug addict and also sells drugs and that she has contacted the authorities numerous times about her own son and has begged the state to intervene. She has also posed the question of why her son was allowed to walk freely despite his extensive criminal record. This has also resulted in the general public questioning why such impunity for criminals is becoming the norm. The public has argued that the more crime goes unpunished appropriately, the more people tend to commit crimes especially against vulnerable groups such as women, children and animals which tend to go appropriately unpunished the most. 

These are sadly only the more public cases that have reached the general public. According to Anıt Sayaç (Which is a project with the goal of documenting femicides in Türkiye) a total of 320 women were victims of femicides in Türkiye in the year 2024 as of 20.10.24

Crimes Against Children

The disappearance of a child in Diyarbakır, eastern Türkiye in August 21 made headlines especially after she was found dead on September 8, on a riverbank 2km from her village. 8 year old Narin was last seen leaving a Quran school she was attending. The person who buried Narin’s dead body later came forward as a confessor claiming he did not commit the murder itself and was offered 200 thousand liras to get rid of the body by the village muhtar (an administrator). He also made a point of mentioning that he made namaz (islamic prayer) after burying Narin’s body, which was perceived as an attempt to appeal to the islamic sensibilities of parts of the general public in an effort to reduce his guilt in their eyes but has also had the opposite effect of receiving condemnation from large parts of the general public for trying to hide behind his religion and peoples religious sensibilities. To this day the motives for the murder of Narin is unknown. 

News of Rojin (21) also came to light, a university student who had gone missing after leaving her dormitory in Van. She was found to have died. Her cause of death  remains undetermined. Other unrelated cases of missing women and children have also been reported from various cities in eastern Türkiye following days after these events.

Following these events news broke of a separate case from Tekirdağ where a two year old baby had passed away after a month in the hospital due to sexual abuse. These events came at a time of public upheaval due to increasing femicides and drew attention also to increasing crimes against children in the country. 

Crimes Against Animals

Türkiye has enacted new laws pertaining stray animals which have seen severe backlash from animal rights groups and the general public due to it encouraging the systemic killing of stray animals. On 11.10.24 tens of animals were found poisoned in trash bags in a garbage container in front of the Animal Shelter in Gebze. This was the largest such case of animals being killed in the country. It was said that some of the animals were still fighting for their lives when they were discovered. Following the passing of the new laws random killings of stray animals in the country were already on the rise. 

The Public Response

Following these horrifying events, personal-use pepper sprays have seen a peak in sales. Several large-scale protests took place all around the country; There were protest infant of the ancient city walls of İstanbul where the murder of İkbal took place. Women took to the streets to make their voices heard and the opposition seen. There were also large scale protests in other parts of İstanbul and in cities like Ankara, Bodrum and Kütahya against femicides. Women demanded the appropriate laws to be implemented the way they are supposed to be and a return to the Istanbul Convention. 

There was also a walk organised by the main opposition party CHP on International Day of the Girl Child to draw attention specifically to the rise of crimes against girl children in the country. 

There was an immediate protest in front of the Gebze municipality with high profile celebrities also in attendance. Defendants of the new law pertaining to stray animals have cited islamic reasons specifically in the case of stray dogs in an effort to appeal to more extremist religious groups in the country.