Probe launched into governor over allegations of beating up woman in Turkey’s Kırklareli
Dinçer Gökçe - KIRKLARELİ
Turkish authorities have launched an investigation into the governor of the northwestern province of Kırklareli over reports of abduction and beating up a woman with whom he allegedly had a relationship for two years.
The investigation was launched after the woman, 48, told authorities that Orhan Çiftçi, 52, and four others took her to a forested land and beat her for approximately two hours in the western province of Bursa, where Çiftçi was serving as a governor of the Mudanya district at the time.
The woman told the Internal Inspection Department of the Justice Ministry that she and Çiftçi, who is married, had a relationship that lasted from 2014 to 2016. However, once Çiftçi was reassigned from Bursa to Istanbul as a district governor, he broke up with the woman. She allegedly could not come to terms with this, prompting her to develop “a desire for revenge.”
On May 8, 2017, Çiftçi and the woman agreed to meet in person in the neighborhood of Bademli in Bursa. However, Çiftçi allegedly did not come to the meeting alone. One of the men accompanying Çiftçi while battering the woman was caught on security cameras at the location of the incident. Later, the woman was forcefully taken into a car and driven to the Balat Forest, also located in the Bursa province.
The woman told the chief inspector in her testimony that Çiftçi had told her he would only let her go and give back her mobile phone if she “kissed his shoes.” “He said, ‘You will kiss them.’ After not wanting to kiss them, I turned my head leftwards and he slapped my face with his foot. Then I kissed the bottom of both of his shoes. Then he told me, ‘You can go,’” the woman was quoted as saying.
After the incident, the woman obtained a report from a hospital on May 9, 2017 indicating that she was battered. On the same day, she gave a testimony to the Bursa provincial security directorate, whose personnel conducted an analysis of the forested land.
The police also took the testimony of a stonemason working close to the place of the incident. “I heard a woman’s screams as I was sitting at the worksite. But, I did not go outside and check it out. From what I could hear, the woman was saying, ‘Please I beg you, let me go, give back my phone,’” he said.
The report prepared by the Internal Inspection Department of the Justice Ministry has been completed and submitted to the Interior Ministry.
On Feb. 8, the Interior Ministry released a statement saying an inspector was assigned by them on Sept. 15, 2017 regarding the incident and an investigation had already been launched.
Meanwhile, the woman was reported to have also spoken with Interior Ministry officials, including Minister Süleyman Soylu, regarding the incident.
Çiftçi has left daily Hürriyet’s questions regarding the case unanswered.
