Group protests transgender killing in Turkey’s İzmir

İZMİR - Demirören News Agency

A group of locals in the Aegean province of İzmir gathered on Aug. 29 to protest the killing of a transgender individual.

Esra A. was found killed in front of her house on İstiklal Avenue in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district on Aug. 25. To protest the incident, a group of 30 people gathered in İzmir’s Alsancak district and shouted slogans of “Our identities cannot be extenuating circumstances,” “Transgender women are women,” “Do not stay silent” and “Stop violence against transgender people.”

Nora Şenkal, who made a statement to the press on behalf of the group, said staying silent to the killing of transgender women was unacceptable. “Is it only perpetrators who are responsible for the attacks sex workers are exposed to as well as for this recent murder committed in the heart of Istanbul? We do not accept the unacknowledgement of these murders,” Şenkal said.

“During the prosecution of LGBTI+ murder perpetrators, just in the case of femicides, perpetrators are given power with reduced sentences based on rulings of ‘unjust provocation’ and ‘good conduct behavior,’ which pave the way for new murders and attacks,” Şenkal added.

Following the release of the press statement, the group dispersed.

The murder of Esra A. is just the latest in a long list of cases of harassment, violence and murder against transgender people in Turkey.

Human rights activists accuse Turkey’s police and justice system of turning a blind eye to aggression against transgender sex workers.