Hundreds of women in Turkey protested yesterday, Saturday, against the killing of women. This protest is in response to the recent murder of two women in Istanbul.
An AFP representative said that hundreds of protesters gathered in Istanbul chanted slogans condemning Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist AKP party.
One of the organizers of this protest is Gunes Fadime Aksahin. She told the protesters, “You (Erdogan) are a government that allows young women to be killed.”
A woman named Gulizar Sezer spoke at the gathering. Gulizar’s daughter was murdered. Her daughter’s body was recovered last June. The body had been wrapped in a carpet and thrown into the sea.
In addition to Istanbul, protests have taken place in the capital Ankara and another major city, Izmir. A women’s rights organization has posted pictures of the protests. Such protests have been happening daily across Turkey for a week, especially on university campuses.
A suspect was arrested for allegedly killing two young women in one night. The suspect committed suicide last week.
Istanbul officials said the suspect and the two murdered young women were all 19 years old. They also said that the two women were killed 30 minutes apart. It is not known whether the victims knew the attacker.
President Erdogan initially blamed alcohol and social media (for the killings). Last Wednesday, he promised to strengthen the judicial system and be tougher on crime suppression.
Turkey is struggling to cope with the trend of femicide.
A monitoring group said 299 women have been killed in Turkey this year. In the country of 85 million people, more than 160 other “suspicious” killings have been officially reported as suicides or accidents.
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