Killing of Emine Bulut

Last updated

The killing of Emine Bulut was the murder in 2019 of a Turkish woman by her ex-husband. The crime stirred public outrage in Turkey with condemnations of violence against women.

Contents

On 18 August 2019, Fedai Baran followed Bulut and their daughter into a café in Kırıkkale. Baran stabbed Bulut in the neck and then fled the scene in a taxi.

A video shows Bulut screaming "I don't want to die" and holding her neck after being stabbed as her ten-year-old daughter pleads for her not to die. Bulut died in the hospital. [1]

Incident

Bulut was having lunch with her 10-year-old daughter at a café in the northwestern province of Kırıkkale. Baran, whom she divorced four years prior, followed her to the café. Once there, he started arguing with her about the custody of their child. Baran later claimed that Bulut had insulted him.

Baran attacked Bulut with a knife he was carrying. The aftermath of the incident was filmed. The video shows Bulut screaming "I don't want to die" while her daughter was crying "Mum, please don't die!". [2]

Public reaction

Days after Bulut was killed, the video was shared on social media. Many social media users shared messages of "We don't want to die" and expressed their demands for an immediate end to feminicides. [3]

The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services issued a written statement regarding the killing. The statement said Bulut's daughter had been placed under the supervision of the ministry's psychologists. It was also announced that a legal counsel had been appointed to prosecute Baran. [4]

Gülsüm Kav, representative of We Will Stop Femicide, a women's rights platform, told the BBC: "The fact that her last cry was asking not to be killed is the symbol of how little, we as women, want. In Turkey, our demand as women, is not to be killed. This was Emine's last cry. And the fact that her child cried 'Mum don't die'… I don't think anyone in the world can turn a blind eye to it whatever their world view." According to We Will Stop Femicide, 31 women were killed in July alone. [1]

People associated with human rights groups carried out protests across the country in solidarity with her. [5]

Trial

The Kırıkkale Criminal Court found 43-year-old Baran guilty of "killing with malicious intent" and sentenced him to life imprisonment, state-run Anadolu New Agency reported. The court rejected Baran's lawyer's requests for a reduction, it said.

Bulut's mother and father, her siblings, bar representatives from 81 provinces, representatives of non-governmental organisations and women's associations attended the second hearing in the case, Anadolu said. [6] The mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, wrote on his Twitter: "We lost Emine Bulut because of male violence. We stand by women and children in the fight against violence and we will continue to."

A message from the Beşiktaş football team said: "We are not silent against this savage. We wish the killings of women to come to an end and the perpetrators will be tried with the most severe penalties. We won't get used to it, we won't shut up."

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Femicides in Ciudad Juárez</span>

It was estimated that more than 370 women were killed between 1993 and 2005 in Ciudad Juárez, a city in northern Mexico. The murders of women and girls received international attention primarily due to perceived government inaction in preventing the violence and bringing perpetrators to justice. The issue has featured in many dramas, songs, books, and so on.

A thrill kill is premeditated or random murder that is motivated by the sheer excitement of the act. While there have been attempts to categorize multiple murders, such as identifying "thrill killing" as a type of "hedonistic mass killing", actual details of events frequently overlap category definitions making attempts at such distinctions problematic.

Uxoricide is the killing of one's own wife. It can refer to the act itself or the person who carries it out. It can also be used in the context of the killing of one's own girlfriend. It can refer to the act itself or the person who carries it out. The killing of a husband is called mariticide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Femicide</span> Murder of women or girls because of their gender

Femicide or feminicide is a hate crime which is broadly defined as "the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female," but definitions of it vary depending on cultural context. In 1976, the feminist author Diana E. H. Russell first defined the term as "the killing of females by males because they are female." Others broaden the meaning of the term by including the killing of females by females. In many Central American countries, where organized crime is a prevalent issue, the term femicide is used in reference to the violent killings of women and girls which are frequently perpetrated by gang members, a crime which is primarily committed in order to stoke fear and compliance among civilians.

Gendercide is the systematic killing of members of a specific gender. The term is related to the general concepts of assault and murder against victims due to their gender, with violence against women and men being problems dealt with by human rights efforts. Gendercide shares similarities with the term 'genocide' in inflicting mass murders; however, gendercide targets solely one gender, being men or women. Politico-military frameworks have historically inflicted militant-governed divisions between femicide and androcide; gender-selective policies increase violence on gendered populations due to their socioeconomic significance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Turkey</span> Overview of crime in the Republic of Turkey

Crime in Turkey is combated by the Turkish police and other agencies. Since the 1990s, overall crime in Turkey has been rising. As of 2014, Turkey has seen a 400% rise in crimes. In 1994, the number of arrested prisoners was recorded as 38,931; 20 years later, as of the beginning of October 2014, the number of prisoners has reached 152,335. According to the data provided by the Ministry of Justice, terrorism and homicide rate has been decreasing year by year after 2014 in Turkey, terrorism is almost never seen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Turkey</span> Overview of the status of women in Turkey

Women in Turkey are women who live in or are from Turkey. Turkey gave full political rights to women, including the right to elect and be elected locally in 1930. Article 10 of the Turkish Constitution bans any discrimination, state or private, on the grounds of sex. It is the first country to have a woman as the President of its Constitutional Court. Article 41 of the Turkish Constitution reads that the family is "based on equality between spouses".

Several honor killings have been documented in the United States in recent years. As of 2012, there is no central agency that collects data across all jurisdictions in regards to honor violence in the United States. There is reluctance among some organizations to label events as honor killings to avoid stigmatizing Muslim and Arab cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of violence against LGBT people in the United States</span>

The history of violence against LGBT people in the United States is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender individuals (LGBT), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United States of America. Those targeted by such violence are believed to violate heteronormative rules and contravene perceived protocols of gender and sexual roles. People who are perceived to be LGBT may also be targeted. Violence can also occur between couples who are of the same sex, with statistics showing that violence among female same-sex couples is more common than among couples of the opposite sex, although male same-sex violence is less common.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Özgecan Aslan</span> 2015 killing of a Turkish university student who resisted attempted rape

Özgecan Aslan was a Turkish university student who was murdered while resisting attempted rape on 11 February 2015 on a minibus in Mersin, Turkey. Her burnt body was discovered on 13 February. The murder was committed by minibus driver Ahmet Suphi Altındöken, and his father Necmettin Altındöken and friend Fatih Gökçe were accomplices in covering up the murder. All perpetrators were handed aggravated life sentences without the possibility of parole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Battaglia</span> American murderer

John David Battaglia Jr. was an American convicted murderer who was executed by the state of Texas for filicide. He was convicted of killing his two young daughters in May 2001 in an act of "ultimate revenge" against his estranged wife, Mary Jeane Pearle, who had separated from him after his numerous instances of assault and violence. Battaglia was executed for the murders on February 1, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Hebert</span> American murderer

Amy T. Hebert is a woman from Mathews, Louisiana, United States, who was convicted of murdering her two children in August 2007 in an act of revenge against her ex-husband; she also killed the family dog. Hebert was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Domestic violence in Turkey is an ongoing and increasing problem in the country. In 2013 a Hurriyet Daily News poll found that 34% of Turkish men think violence against women is occasionally necessary, and 28% say that violence can be used against women. According to data collected by We Will Stop Femicide Platform (KCDP) in Turkey, the number of femicides had increased from 80 to 280 between the years of 2008 and 2021. In the same report it is stated that 195 of the femicides that took place in 2021 were committed by the woman's spouse, ex-spouse, partner or ex-partner, and 46 of the femicides were committed by a family member or relative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Tulay Goren</span>

Tulay Goren was a 15-year-old Kurdish schoolgirl from Woodford Green, North London who went missing in January 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Heshu Yones</span>

Heshu Yones was a 16-year-old Iraqi Kurd from Acton, west London who was murdered by her father in an honour killing. Abdalla Yones killed his daughter for becoming too "westernised" and for engaging in a relationship against his orders. He was sentenced to life in prison in September 2003, with a minimum term of fourteen years.

Nadine Lott was an Irishwoman who was murdered by her ex-partner, Daniel Murtagh, in December 2019. On 14 December, Lott, who was 30 years old at the time, was subjected to a "sustained and violent attack", in which Murtagh, a trained boxer, caused severe blunt force trauma with his bare hands, as well as stabbing Lott repeatedly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Femicide in Turkey</span> Murder of females in Turkey

Femicide in Turkey is murders in which women are killed for reasons related to their social roles, such as being killed on the grounds of "honor cleansing".

An honor killing, honour killing, or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of themselves or their family. Honor killings are often connected to religion, caste and other forms of hierarchical social stratification, or to sexuality, and those murdered will often be more liberal than the murderer rather than genuinely "dishonorable". Most often, it involves the murder of a woman or girl by male family members, due to the perpetrators' belief that the victim has brought dishonor or shame upon the family name, reputation or prestige. Honour killings are believed to have originated from tribal customs. They are prevalent in various parts of the world, as well as in immigrant communities in countries which do not otherwise have societal norms that encourage honor killings. Honor killings are often associated with rural and tribal areas, but they occur in urban areas too. Although condemned by international conventions and human rights organizations, honor killings are often justified and encouraged by various communities.

Jennifer Poole was an Irish woman who was murdered by her ex-partner, Gavin Murphy, in April 2021.

References

  1. 1 2 "Emine Bulut: Anger in Turkey over mother's murder". BBC News. 23 August 2019.
  2. "Prosecutor Requests Aggravated Life Sentence for Emine Bulut's Ex-Husband - english".
  3. "Last Words of Emine Bulut on Social Media: I Don't Want to Die - english".
  4. "Ministry Statement on Murder of Emine Bulut - english".
  5. Cunningham, Erin (23 August 2019). "Video of woman stabbed by ex-husband revives domestic violence debate in Turkey". Washington Post. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  6. "Turkish man receives life sentence for murder of ex-wife". Ahval.