Parliament to investigate child abuse cases

ANKARA

Five parties with a group in the parliament will submit a proposal to establish a research commission on the prevention of child abuse amid a case which has shaken the entire country as the victim was a 6-year-old girl at the time of her forced marriage.

At the parliament’s general assembly, main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) group deputy chair Özgür Özel offered to make a joint proposal for the establishment of the commission if the other parties also approved.

As the group deputies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), İYİ (Good) Party, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) agreed, the joint proposal of the five parties is expected to be discussed at the general assembly on Dec. 22.

The offer came after a controversial child abuse case where the victim’s father forced her into marriage at the age of six.

The case, also causing anger on social media, came to the parliament’s agenda on Dec. 7, when Sera Kadıgil, a Workers Party of Türkiye (TİP) deputy, filed motions to six ministries.

The woman, identified only by the initials H.K.G., accused her father, Yusuf Ziya Gümüşel, the head of the Hiranur Foundation affiliated with İsmailağa Jamia, of forcibly marrying her to a 29-year-old sect member, Kadir İstekli, in 2004 when she was just six.

The prosecutor asked for a prison sentence of over 67 years for İstekli with charges of “child abuse” and “sexual assault.” Another 22-and-a-half-year prison sentence was asked for each of H.K.G.’s parents on the charge of “sexual harassment of children.”

İstekli and Gümüşel, who were taken into custody, were referred to the courthouse following their arrets and procedures at the police station.

The first hearing of the lawsuit, first scheduled on May 22, 2023, was moved up by four months to Jan. 30, 2023.