According to a report in the UK Independent newspaper published on Saturday, Ahmet Yildiz, an openly gay physics student was shot as he was leaving a cafe near the Bosphorus strait. He tried to flee in his car, but lost control and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Ahmet Yildiz, 26, had received death threats shortly after coming out this year. Photo was published in The Independent.
His friend, Sedef Cakmak, was quoted in the paper as saying, "He fell victim to a war between old mentalities and growing civil liberties."
"I feel helpless: we are trying to raise awareness of gay rights in this country, but the more visible we become, the more we open ourselves up to this sort of attack," said Cakmak who is also a member of the gay lobby group Lamda Istanbul. The group, which is the city's largest LGBT association, was ordered by a court to shut down in May this year as its objectives are "against the law and morality."
The paper further quoted a close friend and near neighbour who described Yildiz's relationship with his parents as tumultuous. The family "wanted him to go back home, see a doctor who could cure him, and get married."
"From the day I met him, I never heard Ahmet have a friendly conversation with his parents... They would argue constantly, mostly about where he was, who he was with, what he was doing."
Suggesting that his being openly gay could have been too much for his family to handle, the neighbour said: "He could have hidden who he was, but he wanted to live honestly."
"He was too brave. He was too open."
Friends say they suspect Yildiz's murder to be an honour-related killing as they had been unable to contact his family for funeral arrangements as his body laid in the morgue for three days.
"We've been trying to contact Ahmet's family since Wednesday, to get them to take responsibility for the funeral," one of the victim's friends said. "There's no answer, and I don't think they are going to come."
The refusal of families to bury their relatives is common after honour-related murders.
Mazhar Bagli, a Turkish sociologist told The Independent that although he has not heard of a death revolving around homosexuality, he has no doubt that it could be used as justification. "Honour killings cleanse illicit relationships. For women, that is a broad term. Men are allowed more sexual freedom, but homosexuality is still seen by some as beyond the pale," said the sociologist who had interviewed 189 people convicted of honour killings.
The Human Rights Watch defines an "honour killing" as the murder of a person, usually a woman, suspected of having offended the "honour" of her family or community, generally on the basis of sexual behaviour deemed transgressive - for example, engaging in a sexual relationship outside of heterosexual marriage.
In Turkey - a predominantly Muslim but officially secular country - a recent government study estimated that around 1,000 honour killings have been committed in the past five years. The UN estimates that 5,000 honour killings take place globally every year, from Brazil to Pakistan to Britain.
Printable Version
RSS Feed: 
Reader's Comments
This is a country that wants to join the European Union? Yuck!
Norwaycut
are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed
with reason and conscience
and should act
towards one another in a spirit
of brotherhood.
Ahmet Yildiz, we honour you brother.
Backward societies and men are basically still just animals, more vicious than their 4-legged counterparts; definitely no better than the latter, as evil men kill on the slightest whimps and whimpest slights, and not for food.
RIP Ahmet. May the true God protect and keep you.
Doing gay photos to a country who will kill you for it is asking for trouble.
i know we all have rights but personally i would not die for it.
It has happened all through history, in the royal and imperial courts of the world, where excess has always been the rule.
I can only imagine that Turkey's own great, long enduring, powerful, and suptuous court of Ottoman sultans was the same.
So sad for the death of a wonder person. Rest in peace Ahmet Yildiz
And lets change that stupid name "honour killing". It's "hateful murder" that's what it is. MURDER.
Better not let any islamic country to join. What would happen if these barbaric people could wander around Europe uncontrolled...?
dear ahmet yildiz, I truely and deeply pray for you and wish you are happy now.... wherever you are.... with love, me, reo.
T.T
Psychos like Yildiz's murderer(s) will kill with anything, not just with guns. Give them rope and they'll hang you, give them a pebble and they'll stone you, give them internet access and they'll spread even more hatred.
I've been planning to go to Turkey and now I don't know whether I'm still interested. RIP, Ahmet Yildiz.
I strongly disagree for two reasons :
1. What about the Turkish people who are ALSO shocked by this murder, and disagree with such barbaric actions ? Why on earth should the EU tell THEM to get lost ? What about the gay Turkish people ? What would they gain from being ostracized ? It could only make their situation worse.
2. If Turkey joins the EU it will eventually have to adjust and even things up, especially on this kind of issue. If on the other hand they are rejected, it will only strengthen the fundamentalist streak which relies on rigid conservatism, nationalism, xenophobia and of course homophobia which - may I remind you angry doves - also exist in other EU countries anyway.
kazu (post#18) you say you are "tired of tolerance"... ok, what do you propose then... intolerance perhaps ? Isn't that what Ahmet's family's reaction was precisely based on ?
Oh, and guys.... before you make some violent response to my post as it so often happened before, would you please take the time to read it properly ? I write and re-write slowly and choose my words carefully so do me a favour, make sure you understand before you react and not the other way round. Thanks !
but i realy dissappointed what i saw in here. why the people like us talking about turkeys joining EU. i believe there is a racial issue people have in their mind. Eu is allways been racist and to be racist in future.
Your sentence "EU has always been racist and always will be in the future" (pardon me for correcting the English) is the stupidest thing I've read so far in the comments about this sad event.
A certain number of people are racist, just like a certain number of people are homophobic. It doesn't mean that all humans are racist or homophobic, and it happens EVERYWHERE. It's a human problem, not a Turkish, European or Singaporean problem. Calling a whole country "racist" IS A RACIST REMARK, are you too dumb to see that ?
wolkenstein (post#37) what exactly is your intention in telling us about this gay magazine's enquiry ? are you trying to tell us that Turks in general are barbaric, retarded and bigoted ? Apparently you are German... do you need to be reminded what the nazi Germans did to gays during the war ? Did it mean that ALL Germans were nazi ? Does it also imply that Germany could never change, improve, and deal with her old demons ?
The murder in Turkey proves that barbarism, homophobia, bigotry and sheer stupidity are still alive and always ready to strike. Sadly a significant number of remarks RIGHT HERE IN THESE COMMENTS prove the very same point.
But look how far Europe has come in 50 years. So maybe Turkey has to take some time to adapt to the new world too. And they are suppossed to be a secular nation.
In our minds we have this deeply, strongly rooted, innocent conviction that "modern times" go along with undeniable evolution, that "civilization" has progressed and that barbarism is... outdated.
The Inquisition was implemented by Pope Gregory IX in 1260 and, by the way, was meant for ALL of what was known at the time as "the Christian World", not only Spain.
If we examine what happened in the world since then, the result is appalling. Not only barbarism has not receded in the least but it may well be on the rise.
Examples ?
From the 13th to the 19th Century, the world was a bloodbath most of the time, and peace a precarious situation between wars. Humans tortured, condemned and killed one another with unfading enthusiasm, for political, religious, behavioural and you-name-it reasons.
Then came the 20th Century, the First World War which killed 20 million people, the Russian Revolution and the Gulags, the Mao era in China (around 50 million dead), the Second World War with the Nazi atrocities and the Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.. then, even closer to the present day, the massacres in Africa, in ex-Yugoslavia, the innumerable number of terrorist attacks of all origins and beliefs, the exactions and human-rights abuse perpetrated by the armies of the so-called "civilized" countries in their wars during decolonization, during the cold war and the fight against communism or nowadays against terrorism...
Sadly, barbarism in 2008 is alive and well, Ritchie, and if we don't acknowledge the fact then we can't even begin to address the problem.
Here are some nagging - and frigthening questions on the issue :
- Is barbarism something that each and everyone of us has inside his/her very essence as a human being ?
- If we agree that we have to get rid of that demon in us and it cannot be "surgically" removed, then can it somehow be subdued ? controlled ? deflected into activities which do not harm anyone ? If so, then how do we do that ?
- On a collective, ie social and political level, can anything be done about it ? Obviously there is a vicious collusion between political powers and individual barbarism. The latter is "released" in situations where the political leaders in place deliberately let hell break loose with a precise agenda in mind and then turn a blind eye on consequences and "collateral damage",
- If barbarism can be eradicated, then why have all societies, all religions, all philosophies and all political systems so far failed to eradicate it ?
Now here's a challenging task : take a group of 20 people from different origins, ages, convictions, and ask them to come up with a common definition of barbarism...
Unlike Singapore and Malaysia, Gay sexual conduct between consenting adults in private is NOT a crime in Turkey. In Turkey, the age of consent for both heterosexual and homosexual sex is 18.
It is noteworthy that within living memory, gays along with disabled people, gypsies and Jews were exterminated in some European countries.
Unfortunately, violence against gay people happens in all countries. Anti-gay attacks continue to occur periodically in Australia, Europe, North America and Asia. Recently a young gay man was killed at while sitting in class at school in California -- because he was gay.
Turkey has been making great attempts to adopt progressive laws as it has sought to align itself with mainstream Europe. Rather than condemning the nation, it would be more helpful if greater efforts were made to embrace it. If some of the people who write here had actually spent any time in Turkey (I recently spent 6 months there), they would appreciate that in many areas of urban Turkey such as Istanbul and Ankara, there are very progressive forces and healthy gay communities.
We should be reaching out to them - not isolating them further.
I fully agree with Yveserwan (post #31 and further).
Don't judge a whole nation or even a whole religion on mistakes (or even crimes, like this one) made by a single member!
And with AEJM (#post44):
We should be reaching out to them - not isolating them further.
Hugs
Kees
Here's something that might make you laugh :
In the never ending debate about religion(s) I remember reading once that "human beings would be better off without religions" .My immediate thought was that in fact, it was quite the other way round, and religions would be a lot better off without human beings !
Please log in to use this feature.