More Than 100 Women Killed In Turkey In 2015

- More than 100 women have been killed by men, mostly their relatives, in Turkey since Jan. 1, including three women killed in recent days across the country.

Seda Camgöz, a 34-year-old mother of two, was killed by her ex-husband when he attacked her with a knife in broad daylight on one of the most crowded streets in the western province of Yalova on May 6.

Camgöz, a teacher at a private education center, died at the scene, while her attacker, Bülent Diler, was captured by the police at the scene and arrested by the court.

On May 3, a woman was killed by her husband in the western province of Edirne. Ersel Gül was murdered by her husband, Gökhan Ferit Gül, 32, while she was sleeping in their home in Pınarköy village in the district of Keşan.

Gül shot and killed his wife with a rifle before turning the weapon on himself. He shot himself in the head in the village square and died in hospital later. He also shot his son, an 8-year-old identified as A.G., but the bullets missed the young boy.

Gül had stayed in a mental hospital for a month, but did not take his medications properly after being discharged from the hospital, according to his neighbors.

Meanwhile, in the southern province of Adana, a woman was seriously wounded by her ex-husband on May 6. Selda Biricik, 19, had been staying at her aunt’s house with her three-year-old son after divorcing her husband, identified as 31-year-old İsmail A., a year ago.

İsmail A. went to the house and attacked Biricik with a knife. Biricik survived the attack and was hospitalized in an intensive care unit. Her condition was still critical on May 7.

İsmail A. also beat the young woman’s aunt, who had attempted to stop the attack, and fled the scene along with their three-year-old son, identified as O.A. The police have been searching for both the attacker and the young boy.

Another incident involved a Turkish singer and songwriter who was found brutally murdered in her house in Istanbul’s Taksim neighborhood late on May 5. The victim, Değer Deniz, knew her killer, according to the initial findings of the police investigation.

The body of the 39-year-old woman was discovered by her younger brother when he had a locksmith open the door of her house after the singer’s family had been unable to contact her throughout the day. Police sources speaking to daily Hürriyet stressed that the door of the rented apartment where Deniz lived had not been forced and none of her belongings were stolen, hinting that she had opened the door herself.

The killer or killers tied her hands with the cable of a cellphone charger at one point before strangling her with the strap of her bag.

“She had rented the place two years ago. She said she had been working at a hotel,” the victim’s landlord, Mustafa Tanrıverdi, said, adding the police took the testimonies of other residents in the building, some of whom were renting rooms daily.

The investigation is continuing and police are currently examining Deniz’s cellphone and computer for possible clues.