'Honor Killing' Exposed 7 Years Later

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 30 June 2019)


                          

On 5 January 2013, a shepherd's dog found a human foot sticking out
of the ground at the Çataltaş location near the entrance to Taburlar
village in Ankara's Elmadağ district.  The Gendarmerie determined
that the body was that of a 25-year-old woman and had been buried 8
months before.  There were 8 stab wounds in the body, from which
DNA samples were taken before the body was buried in a potter's
field.

Seven years later, in April 2019, a conscience-stricken witness came
to the Serinyol Gendarmerie Outpost in Hatay and was given the
codename "elma" (apple).  The secret witness related that "by order
of a family council, in 2012 Halime Akça was stabbed to death by
her older brothers Abdulşükür and Abdulmelik Akça, along with
cousins Burhan and Kasım Akça.  Halime's body was brought to
a place in Elmadağ that I didn't know about and buried there.  I've
been tortured by my conscience for 7 years.  She's in my dreams
every night. Halime's last moments won't ever leave me."

After "Elma"'s deposition, Halime's father Abdulrezzak Akça, her
brother Abdulmelik and cousins Burhan and Kasım Akça were
taken into custody, while her other brother Abdulşükür fled. DNA
samples taken from Halime's parents provided a match that
confirmed Halime's identity. 

Abdulrezzak Akça and his son Abdulmelik were indicted, along
with Burhan and Kasım Akça, who are still underage, for "killing,
with extreme suffering, a relative for the sake of 'family honor'."
Another witness, A.A., testified that "thinking that Halime had
gone astray, her older brothers killed her.  Everyone in the family
knew about it but would not talk about it." 

Witness N.S. testified that "Halime was in a relationship that her
family did not approve of so, based on her father's order, her
older brothers killed her.  I know that after killing and burying
Halime, her brother Abdulrezak said to his father 'it's over, I've
done it.'  Father Abdulrezzak then bemoaned tearfully that 'I
would have dressed my daughter in a wedding gown.'"