Fabricated stories about a murdered woman fined

I have written numerously about the murder of Değer Deniz. It was a horrific atrocity that shook us all with fear. 

A Goddamned substance abuser, in the middle of a night, broke into Deniz’s apartment which was on the third floor of a building in Istanbul’s Cihangir district. The attacker climbed up three stories and entered the apartment from an open balcony door on a summer day. He tortured the young woman, raped her and then strangled her to death. There was no reason for this barbarism, they did not know each other before. Even though the pervert tried to utter baseless lies in his hearings saying things like “She was my lover,” the panel of judges did not fall for his lies. 

On Dec. 14, 2016, judges finalized a 37-page-long justified decision in her case. We were relieved… 

In this country, women are murdered one after another, and not all murderers receive the punishment they deserve. But in Deniz’s murder, the sentence was given at the maximum level. 

After this decision, which solaced our grievances, Hülya Gülbahar, a women’s and human rights’ activist and lawyer, gave us another piece of good news. 

During the murder case, certain journalists, newspapers and internet sites had tried to distort the story and made up false reports about Deniz. They said she was a Shabbethai artist who lived alone. They questioned why she was residing in that particular neighborhood. They even made up stories implying that these murders were natural for an artist who lived alone. But these stories were unreal and intentional. 

They wrote these stories, from their desks, without conducting any research or investigation. 

But now, Istanbul’s 17th Court of First Instance has issued sentences for those who wrote, printed and posted these distorted news and made-up stories.  

This means that if you attempt to slander women who live alone like Deniz, such as musicians and artists, with fabricated stories, if you try to demean and disgrace them, try to show that their murder was deserved, cover up a savagely conducted femicide and try to minimize this into an ordinary legal burglary case, then you pay the price. 

There was not even a penny reduced in their punishments. The cases that were opened against those papers and journalists, who constructed those baseless stories, ruled that they should be sentenced to pay the maximum compensation. 

These guys who call themselves “journalists” had humiliated a woman who lived alone and tramped over the values of her artist identity. 

They had killed an already murdered woman once more… 

So what, can’t a woman live alone in this country? Is it a crime to be an artist or a musician? What is there to criticize, to condemn in that? 

Does a woman have to be married to survive in this country? Is motherhood the only position in this country that women are valued on? 

Isn’t it enough just to be a woman? 

There are no ifs and buts here… 

There is also a subtle aspect in the judges’ decision. The Press Council also condemned these baseless stories and determined that all eight of the press ethics were violated… But, unfortunately, the removal of these posts was prevented by the “Criminal Courts of Peace.”  

In this last decision of the Court of First Instance, we see that there is still hope in Turkey… As long as we do not give up struggling… 

This decision, despite all, is a development that the justice system is trying to protect our lifestyles… 
I personally was very happy…

I congratulate the panel of judges, Gülbahar and the family of Deniz.