Between Recep Tayyip Erdogan's elections in 2002 and 2009, the murders of women increased by 1400% in Turkey. And the trend has only worsened with time. During 2014, at least 294 Turkish women were killed. Just in January, 27 were killed, 20% more than the previous year. Each time, the abuser is part of the direct or indirect entourage of the victim.

But these various facts are not normally receiving sufficient attention from the public opinion. 

Things have changed on February 13, with the death of Aslan Özgecan. The twenty-year-old student was raped and killed with iron bars beaten by the minibus driver who brought her to the university. Her burned body was found in a river in the city of Tarsus, in the south of the country, hands cut off.

The tragedy caused deep emotion throughout the country. Tens of thousands people sponteaniously demonstrated in major cities to denounce the increase of violence against women and also point the responsibility of the Islamic-conservative government.

In Istanbul, dozens of men wearing skirts demonstrated on the large pedestrian Istiklal Street which leads to the famous Taksim Square, on the European side to denounce violence against women. Several demonstrations were also held close to my home in Kadikoy.

On Twitter, the hashtag #OzgecanAslan and #sendeanlat (tell your story) were shared three million times, and a petition calling for severely punish the murderers collected nearly one million signatures.

Sources