‘We want justice for Merve Kotan’

* Photo (from left to right): Ahmet Hakan-Ayşenur-Esra and Merve Kotan

Click to read the article in Turkish

"The indictments filed about the women who lost their lives as a result of male violence, the ensuing judicial processes or court rulings do not really give us hope that the murderer of my sister will be penalized. I cannot make any sense of how a person who claims a person's life can be given a sentence reduction. May no sentence reduction be given to the person who killed my sister... Our only struggle is for this."

Cemre Esra Kotan has been waging a struggle of justice for her sister Merve Kotan. Merve was killed by a man named Muhammet G. in Turkey's Aegean province of Aydın on August 15, 2019.

Muhammet G. asked Merve and his friend Ekim to a park under the pretext of a birthday celebration. He killed Merve and Ekim. Then, he defended himself at court saying, "She cheated on me, I did it for my honor."

CLICK - bianet Male Violence Monitoring Reports

'He prepared the ground for sentence reduction'

Cemre Esra Kotan, the elder sister of Merve, is stressing over and over again that Ekim was the friend of Muhammet G. and that he and Merve were not in a relationship. In doing this, she indiactes that killing of her sister with an excuse of "honor" is not the reality whatsoever:

"Muhammet asked Ekim to come on purpose. Murderers read on newspapers how they can get sentence reductions and commit murders after that. They prepare the ground for this. It was also what Muhammet did."

The indictment filed against Muhammet G. demands life imprisonment aggravated for two times on charge of "premeditated and deliberate murder." The court board is expected to announce its ruling in the hearing of the case to be held tomorrow (June 18).

Speaking to bianet before the hearing, Merve Kotan's elder sister Cemre Esra Kotan has briefly stated the following:

'Sentence reduction will encourage others'

"We are four siblings. Merve was our youngest sister. She was full of love. She was interested in arts. She used to work for street animals. Her humanity was lovely. But they took her away from life. He premeditated it, he deliberately killed my sister on her birthday.

"Every hearing where the murderer is put on trial is really very difficult for us. We feel sorrow for Merve even more in each hearing. The punishment demanded by the prosecutor will relieve us.

"No punishment will bring my sister back, but we want that - at least - a punishment be given and no sentence reduction be granted. If the perpetrator is given a sentence reduction in this case, it will also encourage other men about murder. With each news of feminicide on TV, they kill Merve one more time. We feel the same sorrow with each murder.

"When my sister was killed, we did what the authorities were supposed to do. We collected evidence, we found the weapon and handed it over to the police. All these processes were really difficult for us. But if we had not done all these, evidence and details would be missing in the case. We had to do this so that the crime would come to light.

"The murderer says it was an 'honor killing.' He finds excuses for killing a woman. It is a lie, to top it all. He killed my sister and he is now trying to prepare the ground for a sentence reduction. Even the family of the murderer attacked us at court. All we want is justice."

'In this country, men kill women systematically'

Cemre Esra also criticizes the media that approached the murder from a male perspective and reported it as an "honor" and "love" killing:

"Without knowing the background of it, they reported news as if judging my sister. They did not even think about how the news would affect us. Our life has changed after the murder. Neither my mother nor my father is the person that they used to be. They took Merve away from our lives. The media approach this murder as an ordinary incident. But our sister was killed."

Cemre Esra says that before the novel coronavirus pandemic broke out, people would come to the hearing in vehicles from big cities like İstanbul and İzmir, but they cannot do it now due to the outbreak. But she still invites everyone to the hearing tomorrow and concludes as follows:

"This case is the case of us all. If the one who is killed today is Merve, it could be Zeynep tomorrow. In this country, men kill women systematically. No one should think that it would not happen to them. An ember burns where it falls, but we expect support from the whole public. I hope the murderer of my sister will be given a punishment without any sentence reduction."

What happened?

Muhammet G. opened fire on Ekim Türkmen and Merve Kotan with a pump rifle at Nevzat Biçer Park in Aydın province on August 15, 2019. Türkmen and Kotan lost their lives at the scene of incident. Taken into custody, Muhammet G. was arrested by the court.

In his first hearing, Muhammet G. claimed that Ekim and Merve were in a relationship and said that "it was an honor killing." (EMK/SD)