Women’s rights monitors documented 22 femicides in Turkey and one reported femicide in the Turkish Cypriot-administered north of Cyprus during August and early September, renewing urgent concerns that court orders and police complaints are failing to protect women.
The We Will Stop Femicide Platform (KCDP) recorded 22 women killed by men across Turkey in August, alongside 33 suspicious female deaths. Bianet’s separate press-based tally counted at least 25 women, underscoring how differing definitions and the absence of systematic official data complicate the count.
KCDP said nine victims were killed by husbands; 12 died at home; and 14 were shot. The motive remained undetermined in 16 cases. Istanbul recorded four killings, while Diyarbakır/Amed, Mardin and Muğla each reported two.
Among the cases were Nilda Müge Şahin, 26, shot in Istanbul by a former partner despite a complaint and restraining order; Sultan Kara, 32, killed in Diyarbakır by her estranged husband in front of her child after previously obtaining protection; and Sultan Pelit Demir, 19 and eight months pregnant, shot in Yalova by her husband. Her baby survived. In Antalya, retired police officer Hüseyin Durmaz is accused of killing Elina Şengün, 38, at the airport parking lot where she worked.
In northern Cyprus, Saliha Özkol, 61, was stabbed in the courtyard of her home in Aygün/Ayios Georgios near Trikomo at about 6:40 a.m. on Sept. 7. Police identified the suspect as her 71-year-old ex-husband, M.A.; several local outlets named him as Mustafa Ak. Özkol died at the scene. The suspect was later found seriously injured at his Famagusta home after an apparent suicide attempt and hospitalized.
Court records showed the risk was known. Özkol had a 2024 assault report; Ak faced charges including trespassing, assault, illegal knife possession, battery and violating a protection order. An Aug. 15, 2025 family-court order barred him from approaching within 200 metres or contacting her; he also served three months in prison.
Yeniduzen said Özkol’s killing was the north’s fourth homicide since Aug. 3 and noted that a woman stabbed in a Nicosia supermarket on Aug. 3 survived in critical condition.
Opposition CTP leader Sıla Usar İncirli called femicides “political,” while the party demanded a comprehensive protection system. Its women’s branch protested outside the prime minister’s office, declaring: “We cannot wait for another woman to be murdered.”
Advocates in both communities say the cases show that protection orders without monitoring, resources and accountability remain tragically insufficient.
Photo: AI