The reaction to the murder of Özgecan Aslan, a 20-year-old student, brought Turkey’s political and social divisions into sharp relief.
A member of Turkey's bar association holds a poster depicting the slain Özgecan Aslan in Ankara, Feb. 16, 2015.
ADEM ALTAN/AFP / Getty Images
On Wednesday, Feb. 11, Özgecan Aslan, a young Turkish psychology student, boarded a minibus back to her home in the southeastern seaside province of Mersin after an afternoon shopping with her friend. For a young woman whose name has now trended worldwide, we know very little about her life. We know she was born into a poor Alevi family — Alevism is one of Turkey's two main branches of Islam, the other being Sunni, and there is often tension between the two — and we also know that despite the family's financial struggles, they managed to send her to local Çağ University. She was, it seems, a young woman with a bright future.
What happened to her set off an outraged reaction across the world that has lasted for days. And within Turkey, the fury shows no signs of abating. Yesterday, 170 TV presenters from networks across the country wore black live on air.
We don't know exactly what happened on the bus she boarded. It appears that she was travelling home alone, after her friend had got off the vehicle, when the driver attempted to rape her, and it's also understood that she attempted to defend herself with pepper spray before he stabbed her and beat her with an iron bar.
Three days after her disappearance, her body was found in a riverbed. It was apparently so badly disfigured she could only be recognized by her clothing. Several days after that, driver Ahmet Suphi Altındöken, 26, confessed to the murder in testimony to the prosecutor in the Tarsus district of of Mersin. His 50-year-old father, Necmettin Altındöken, and 20-year-old friend Fatih Gökçe were also arrested for their part in the murder. It appears that the bus was stopped prior to the body's discovery because of blood on the seats Altındöken initially said was the result of a fight between passengers.
A member of Turkey's bar association holds a poster depicting Aslan in Ankara on Feb. 16, 2015.
ADEM ALTAN/AFP / Getty Images
Altındöken reportedly told the court that the incident began over a row regarding the route, that his father and friend helped him dispose of the body, and that his friend suggested he cut off her hands to disguise the DNA evidence because she had scratched his face — although Gökçe denied this. According to the Hürriyet Daily News, Altındöken then said they cut off the student's hands while she was still alive, burned her body with gasoline, newspaper, and matches, and threw it off a cliff.
Already, rage about the murder was beginning to build. When the suspects were transported to the court, they were greeted by an angry crowd. The head of the Mersin bar association announced that none of the region's lawyers would represent the three men. On Saturday, Aslan was buried at Akbelen Cemetery in Mersin. Around 5,000 people reportedly attended the funeral, and her coffin was carried by women only — in defiance of the imam's orders.
