Father Knows Worst

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 7 January 2020)




                      Kids adjusting well to life in Turkey...

Zeynep Halil (33), originally from Mardin, moved to Germany when
she was 4-years-old and was married off to relative Ali Halil, who was
11 years her senior.  Zeynep hanım was 17 when she married and gave
birth to three boys, now aged 16, 15 and 13, and two girls, now aged
7 and 4. 

Zeynep hanım explained that when she got married "everything changed.
He objected to my clothing and wouldn't let me go outside the house. I
became his servant.  The moment I disobeyed him he would beat me."

In 2011 Ali Halil was tried for seriously injuring his sister-in-law and
was sentenced to 3 years in jail, ultimately entering prison in 2017 and
being released early from there in 2019.  While Ali Halil was in jail,
Zeynep hanım said that "I began to live again and have contact with
other people."


                       
However, after leaving jail, Ali Halil resumed his threatening behavior
toward his wife, telling her "I want to kill you but I don't want to go
back to prison.  Maybe I'll hire someone to kill you." (!)   Then, last
November, Ali Halil took their five children from Germany to Adana
without telling Zeynep hanım.  He has told her to come, too, and has
threatened to kill her if she doesn't. 

Looking at a picture of her children holding guns, Zeynep hanım
lamented that "when I looked at that picture it broke my heart.  My
children were born in Germany.  None of them know Turkish. What
does this man want from them? What is he teaching them? I'm very
worried about them all but, in particular, my little daughters Doaa and
Aya."