"Seven People Want to Kill a Woman, Only One is Arrested"

Hülya Gülbahar, president of the Association for the Support and Education of Women Candidates (KA-DER) has commented on the attempted murder of a young woman, N.E., in Siirt, eastern Turkey.

She asked, "Why is only one paternal uncle of N.E. being arrested when a planned, organised attempt to kill her was made?"

Stabbed at the hospital

17-year-old N.E. had visited her boyfriend at a local radio station. Her family had attacked the station, and she had tried to escape by jumping out of a sixth floor window. When she was taken to hospital, she was attacked by her uncle, who stabbed her. The uncle, Abdürrahim E., was arrested, and her step brother Suat E. was taken into custody.

Semiye Aliye Kavaf, State Minister responsible for the Family and Women has announced that N.E. and her 12-year-old sibling have been taken into care.

Only one person held responsible

However, Gülbahar, a lawyer, criticised the fact that when women are concerned, the justice system does not work. She said that by the time that N.E.'s uncle had stabbed her, several crimes had been committed, from attacking the station to beating radio employees. She added that there had been a plan and organisation to kill N.E..

"There are seven people involved in the event, but only the stabbing uncle is being held responsible. All of them need to be tried separately for the crimes they have committed."

The lawyer added, "Also, any official who excused violence towards women needs to be tried as being an accessory to the crime, too."

"If she does not die, I will kill her"

The uncle told the police in his statement:

"N., the daughter of my older brother, is engaged to my older sister's son. Despite this she formed a friendship with someone else, so my older brother and my nephews followed her and beat those people she made friends with at the radio station. I found this out, and when I heard that N. was at the Siirt State Hospital, I took a vegetable knife from the greengrocer and went to the hospital. I stabbed her once with the intention of killing her. When I tried to stab her again, the police stopped me. This is a matter of honour for me. If my niece and her boyfriend do not die, I will kill them later."

The police noted under the statement, "He is schizophrenic, it needs to be researched whether he can be punished."

Defending province's image more important...

Siirt MP Akif Demirkıran of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said this was an "exceptional and solitary" event and expressed his sadness at something like this happening in Siirt. (EZÖ/AG)