Bring an end to impunity for child molesters in Turkey

A teacher who was being charged over sexual harassment against a 16-year-old student in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır has earned “good conduct abatement” by a court. 

First let’s have a look at the abusive teacher’s profile.

We knew the teacher, identified only by the initials A.B., from news pieces written by our fellow colleagues Felat Bozarslan and Burak Emek.

In 2000 he was tried by the State Security Court and convicted of “being a member of the terrorist organization [Turkish] Hizbullah.” He was released after serving a four-year sentence in prison.

But obviously his fondness for Hezbollah was not over.

We also learned from Bozarslan’s news piece that he displayed the flag of the organization at home and shared pictures of it on social media, named his little son after Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, praised the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and spoke highly of fugitive Turkish Hizbullah leader Edip Gümüş, calling him “venerable elder brother.”

We can call him a molester or an advocate of a terrorist organization; he never hid who he was. If he was ever to be “appreciated” for anything, that would be it: He always showed his true colors.

It’s hard to understand how someone with a criminal record of terrorism could become a teacher.

But at the time he harassed the 16-year-old, identified only by the initials A.D., in Diyarbakir, he was teaching geography at an Imam Hatip (religious) high school.

Some of you may recall the messages he sent to the girl’s father after facing the risk of A.D. telling her family what had happened and if the family would appeal to the officials.

“I made a mistake. The crime should be put to trial in accordance with Allah’s sharia law,” he had said.

Even if the geography teacher, married with 3 children, insisted to go to “an imam instead of court,” the family had eventually headed to court.

He was released pending trial and was appointed to another school as a teacher.

A.D.’s attorney says he was also fined to two or three allowance cuts.

We also read that he had said: “I came to the court with a full beard just not to get good conduct abatement.” But the latest news arrived.

He earned good conduct abatement! Very well done indeed!

Apart from that, a man who molested a child in the courtyard of a mosque also got “good conduct abatement.”

We witnessed that even one molester, a pervert who sent messages with sexual harassment content to a girl and didn’t attend any of the hearings, got “good conduct abatement.”

If you want to give up on humanity, just search for “good conduct abatement” on the internet and you will see so many precedents.

This was the case less than a month after Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya told Meltem Özgenç of daily Hürriyet that “exercising good conduct abatement for child abusers and those committing violence against women will be abolished. From now on, mothers and children exposed to violence will be put under protection.”

This criminal man became a teacher, committed an offense, made a confession-like statement, said, “I don’t recognize this court, let’s go to the imam” and even said, “I don’t want to get a good conduct abatement.”

In the face of everything that was not in his favor, he earned “good conduct abatement.”

Well, the molester should have also been presented a plaque!