Violent husband arrested, wife and neighbors relieved

ISTANBUL

Women's rights associations and activists stage a demonstration in front of the Istanbul courthouse following the appeal on Aug. 26. DHA Photo

Hasret Kara, 31, mother of four, can finally breathe a sigh of relief: Her husband Yakup Kara, who stabbed her 43 times, was arrested Aug. 27 following a public campaign and many nights during which her neighbors guarded her house.

Yakup, who works at a bakery only a few steps from the hair dresser run by Hasret, was released after he severely wounded her with a screwdriver and continued to threaten her.

“As of now, I am all right,” Hasret told Hürriyet. “He was arrested at 5 p.m. and it is like I have been reborn. My wounds are recovering now. He did this all to kill me.”

Hasret was stabbed in her house in Istanbul’s Çekmeköy neighborhood Aug. 8. The woman survived the attack and underwent surgery on her lungs due to the serious injuries she sustained.

The woman said her anger was directed at the court decision that sued her husband, but did not arrest him. “He was four meters and 25 centimeters away from me,” she said, explaining she could not even let her children out.

“Now they are playing outside,” she said. “I can hear their voices. I feel that I really missed this.”
In a statement, the Urgent Action Group Against Murdering Women said it was a shame it required so much effort to convince the court to arrest the violent husband.

“But all of this tells us that we should set the Thames on fire for police stations to work properly and for the courts not to release murderers,” the statement read.

The group appealed to the court Aug. 26, demanding a re-evaluation of the decision.

Last year, Kara applied to the court for a divorce. “He tried to convince me not to divorce [him], but I was determined. At night, I would stay at the hairdressers working because he was at home. I would stay with my children at home if he did not come home,” Kara said. She added that she was attacked by her husband at home when she attempted to go to work on Aug. 8.

After the attack, her neighbors began keeping watch in front of her house, rotating shifts and receiving support from a trained dog.

“We stay on duty at the apartment until late at night with our friends. This man still comes here and threatens the woman,” Yahya Silyanoğlu, one of the neighbors, said at the time.

Yakup had physically assaulted her several times before the stabbing, Hasret said, adding on one occasion, he broke a bone in her chest while she was pregnant.