10-month-old baby ‘freezes to death’ in Istanbul

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

AA Photos

An investigation has been launched into the apparent freezing to death of a 10-month-old baby in Istanbul.

The exact cause of death of the 10-month-old baby girl, identified only as Aybüke, is still yet to be confirmed.

An investigation was launched after Aybüke’s grandmother, identified as Canan A., took the dead body of her granddaughter to a private hospital on Horhor Street in Istanbul’s Fatih district early on Jan. 5. The hospital administration immediately reported the case to the police.

Police have detained the girl’s grandmother, her mother, and her father, on suspicion of murder motivated by the fact that Aybüke was born to an unmarried couple, which usually draws a negative public reaction in Turkey. 

The investigation has so far revealed that neither parent wanted to raise the baby and Aybüke’s grandmother wanted to look after her, after which she may have fled to live on the streets with the baby.

The three suspects were detained by police on Jan. 5, and they appeared in court on Jan. 6.

The baby’s death comes days after a four-month-old Syrian baby boy, who had been living in a tent in a refugee camp in the eastern Turkish province of Batman, died.

“My baby had no disease. I heard him snoring when I came back from the work in the evening, but he died out of cold while I was taking him to hospital later,” state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the father of the four-month-old Faris Hıdır Ali as saying on Jan. 5.