"Beat & Release": If Twitter Was 'Forbidden', She'd Likely be Dead

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 23 August 2021)

         And if looks could kill, he wouldn't need that gun. 

Fatma Yasak (whose surname means 'forbidden') divorced Alper Tasalı

because of the violence he subjected her to.  Then Tasalı kidnapped

Fatma hanım at gunpoint.  He was arrested but released by the court.

Enraged, Fatma hanım declared on Twitter "I don't want to die!", after 

which Tasalı was re-arrested. (!)

In Esenyurt, Istanbul, Fatma hanım and Tasalı married three years ago

and began living with his mother. Early on in the marriage things went

well, but in the ensuing months Tasalı's violence toward Fatma hanım 

turned the situation into a nightmare for her.  After moving to her father's

home, Fatma hanım began to share her nightmare years on social media:

"One day when I was at home the bell rang and I opened the door to 

see him there holding a knife.  He began to attack me with it for an 

hour but somehow he didn't kill me that day.  That wasn't the last time,

though.  When he told me that he rented a house for just us to live in

and that he had changed, I believed him - but knowing I shouldn't."  

"We moved to our own place and things went well for a few months.

But then he began to show his real face again, starting fights over the

slightest things and subjecting me to violence.  So after two years of

this, I gathered my courage and moved back in with my own family

in July 2021."

                                  Extrajudicial lifesaver.

"The day before yesterday as I was walking along, a white car came in

front of me, Alper got out of it with a gun, which he fired next to me,

and forced me into the car.  At this point, I sent three messages to 

KADES (police protection system for women).  I asked Alper where

we were going and he told me we were headed to a vacant lot in Silivri

where he was going to kill me and then commit suicide." (!)

"I then got a call back from KADES and to prevent Alper from realizing

I was talking to the police I said I was talking to a prospective employer.

Then I said to the policeman on the phone that I couldn't come for the

job interview because I was en route to Silivri on an urgent matter.  I 

was able to send the police my location via WhatsApp.  I tried to quickly

erase the messages but Alper grabbed the phone from me and understood

that I was in contact with the police."

"Alper then threw both of our phones out the window.  Without my 

phone, I thought the only thing I could to was to try to persuade him 

that I wanted to make up.  He bought the story and agreed to give

me his gun, bullets and knife, which we dropped off at my father's

house.  I was able to tell my father the situation and he called the

police, who came and took Alper into custody."

However (!), after processing at the police station, Tasalı was released.

Fatma hanım then took to Twitter to decry Tasalı's release, writing 

"I don't want to die like Özgecan and Alyna!"  Thousands of responders

objected to the release on the Twitter label "#AlperTasalıTutuklansın"

(Arrest Alper Tasalı), prompting Tasalı's re-arrest last evening. (sigh...)

                        A little birdie got him into jail.