Girl’s murder sparks outrage, death penalty debate in Turkey

Özgecan Aslan, a 20-year-old university student whose charred body was found on Friday after she went missing last week, has brought violence towards women into the spotlight in Turkey. Nationwide protests and repeated calls for the reinstatement of the death sentence abolished more than a decade ago reflect a growing anger in the country where violence targeting women remains a major concern.

The victim, who boarded a minibus to go home in the southern Turkish city of Mersin, was reportedly killed by the minibus driver as she rejected his advances. The driver was arrested, along with his father and a friend who helped him dispose of the body.

Prime suspect Suphi Altındöken denied he tried to rape the victim before killing her and claimed the woman attacked him first. The defendant said in his initial interrogation that Aslan thought he would rape her when he took a detour and fired on him with a pepper spray.

Still, the trio faces unprecedented public outrage in the country embattled with the disturbing phenomenon of violence against women, especially in domestic violence cases. No lawyers took the case of the three defendants while an angry crowd tried to lynch the men as they were brought to a courthouse following the murder.

People took to the streets on Sunday and yesterday all across the country in response to the brutal murder. Responding to a call on social media, women wore black in memory of the young student.

The incident also sparked a debate on the reinstatement of the death penalty, which was abolished in 2004 and replaced with aggravated life imprisonment. Politicians including ministers and activists voiced support for bringing back the death sentence that has been a widespread practice during the military coups of the past. Ayşenur İslam, Minister of Family and Social Policies, was among the first high-ranking officials calling for a debate over the reinstatement of the death penalty. "We can put it on our agenda," she told reporters after a visit to the family of Aslan. Other politicians from the ruling party and opposition parties echoed the sentiment. Still, the call is viewed as an emotional reaction to the grisly murder rather than a serious effort for a return to the capital punishment abolished in line with Turkey's democratization efforts.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Hülya Gülbahar, said although the law on the issue is sufficient, its practice is not effective. She rejects calls for the death penalty and claims aggravated punishments "drive attackers to destroy bodies so as to make them unidentifiable," she says. Altındöken had confessed that he cut off the victim's hands to prevent being identified by DNA traces left on the woman's fingers as she attempted to claw his face. Gökçe Çiçek Ayata from Bilgi University's Human Rights Law Research Center told Anadolu Agency that it is unacceptable to talk about capital punishment while laws to prevent violence "are not enforced."

"If you want to eliminate violence against women, you must first acknowledge equality between woman and men and then have effective, comprehensive and integrated policies," Ayata told AA.

Mazhar Bağlı, a professor of sociology at Yıldırım Beyazıt University, told Daily Sabah that violence toward women is on the rise in the world and not a situation specific to Turkey. "You cannot explain it away with culture or ideology. It is rather about an erosion of values that modernity brought about," he said. Bağlı said although violence is "learned," it is only a part of the problem, and the tendency to violence is inherent in people. "What matters is how you can restrain it. We should focus on how to do that and we need a set of values to contain the inherent violence," he said.

Bağlı said although a harsh sentence for the crime is an important factor, it is not sufficient. "We need to educate people on values, on adapting to the societal norms and in controlling violent urges," he said. He does not approve of capital punishment: "Certainly, it can be debated about such crimes, but since it is an irreversible punishment, no one fully approves of it. Personally, I oppose it based on the pain that the past cases of capital punishment have inflicted upon us, especially for its political use."

Mehmet Aslan, father of the victim, says they only want "justice to be served." "This is our fate. We must now work to restore security and peace in this country," he said. Songül Aslan, mother of Özgecan, said she supported a death sentence for the perpetrators while her husband disagreed. "It can be a deterrent but it is not a permanent solution," he said. "People have to learn to control their evil urges," Mehmet Aslan said.

The young girl's death epitomized sex crimes targeting women. Convictions of sex offenders rose from 7,100 to 12,585 from 2009 to 2013, according to the latest statistics provided by the government.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Sunday, "Our aim is to ensure no one forgets this pain. May those hands that strike at women be broken. As a person who lost his mother at birth, I know our main duty is to protect our mothers and women. We are mobilizing to end violence against women. Women need to rise up and raise their voice."

The Turkish nation was united in its grief and anger over the incident as witnessed by an outpouring of stories about sexual harassment on Twitter and other social media websites. As women contemplated on painful memories of harassment, some groups proposed a different way to tackle violence against women. A petition initiated last year was back in circulation yesterday, with thousands calling for gender-segregated transportation for women.