Two women seeking divorces from their husbands were brutally murdered in two separate cases in the northern city of Samsun and the southern city of Mersin, prompting outrage against violence targeting women.
In Mersin, Mustafa E. was detained yesterday after a tip-off by the family of his wife Cemile E. to the police that their son-in-law might be involved in the disappearance of their daughter who sought a divorce. Mustafa E. himself had reported to the police that his wife disappeared but seeing suspicious blood stains in the couple's home, police interrogated the husband and found out he killed and dismembered her, media outlets reported. Body parts of Cemile E. were found dumped in a cemetery, inside a grave of a relative of the husband.
In Samsun, Enis Adem Ş. was captured by police yesterday after he stabbed his wife Merve Ş., a 25-year-old woman who sought to divorce him, 19 times. The suspect was fleeing the parking lot of a hospital when the police captured him. "I regret it," the suspect told reporters as he was escorted to a police station. Like Cemile E., Merve Ş., a mother of one, was seeking a divorce from her husband, while the husband claimed she "cheated on" him.
Domestic violence and the murder of women by husbands, partners and relatives have long been a thorn in Turkey's side, where broader media coverage over recent years has made this scar on society even more visible.
Although no official figures are available, dozens of women are killed every year by husbands, former husbands, boyfriends or male relatives, according to reports by nonprofit groups monitoring violence against women.
A larger number are believed to be subjected to sexual assault. In both physical and sexual violence cases, victims tend to not to report the attacks, either fearing for their life or fearing that their next of kin, children, et cetera, will also face attack.
