Turkish protests condemn domestic violence after murder of Kurdish woman

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Women are taking to streets in Turkey to protest the brutal death of a Kurdish woman in the country’s southwestern province of Mugla this week. Protesters are calling for an end to femicide and demand Ankara remain party to a Convention that guarantees women’s rights. 

Pinar Gultekin, 27, originally from the Kurdish-populated province of Bitlis, was studying economics at Mugla Sitki Kocman University in Mugla city. She went missing on July 16 and her dead body was found five days later in a forest.  
 
Her death sparked nationwide outrage in Turkey as human rights groups warn that femicide is on rise in the country. 

Women’s rights institutions have staged protests across Turkey this week and the demonstrations continued today with more women taking to the streets, chanting slogans like “We will not be silent for Pinar.”

The hashtag #PınarGültekin is still trending in the country, with social media users demanding an end to violence against women.  

Police have arrested a man, believed to be her former partner. The suspect, Cemal Metin Avci, has confessed his crime, according to the state-owned TRT World. 

Politicians and party and government officials – including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – have condemned the murder. Erdogan tweeted on Wednesday that “These murderers and their infamous murder have no place in our civilization and understanding,” adding that he will follow her case until the perpetrator receives the “heaviest punishment.”  

Zehra Zumrut Selcuk, Turkey's Minister of Family, Labour and Social Services, also said that the perpetrator will get “the heaviest penalty.”  

Opposition parties including the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) have also condemned the killing.

“Violence, harassment, rape and all kinds of crimes against women are social problems. A social, political and cultural struggle is required,” HDP lawmaker Saruhan Oluc said during a parliament meeting on Wednesday.  

The deceased student’s father, Sidik Gultekin, said at his daughter’s funeral, "The semester at the university was over and she was waiting for me. I was going to go and take her on Eid-al Adha, but I could not. I brought a piece of bone and buried it in the ground.”  
 
"These massacres must really end now. I don't want any more Pinars to die. My condolences to the whole of Turkey,” he said.

According to the UK-based International Observatory of Human Rights (IOHR), almost 120 women have been killed in Turkey since January. 

“The murder is one of the nearly 120 femicides recorded in Turkey so far this year. The number of femicides in Turkey had increased under lockdown. 11 out of 21 women killed in May were killed by firearms, mostly by their partners, and 27 women were killed by men in June alone,” it tweeted on Wednesday.

The murder of Gultekin is shining a spotlight on violent crimes against women while conservatives are putting pressure on the government to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women and domestic violence. It was introduced in 2011 and ratified by Turkey the following year.

The ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) deputy leader Numan Kurtulmus is among those against the Convention, describing it as “really wrong.”   

Protesters in the streets are demanding the government stay in the Convention. The hashtag #İstanbulSözleşmesiYaşatır (IstanbulConventionProtectsLives) has also been used alongside #PınarGültekin. 

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