Turkish Gay Honour Killing Dad on Trial

January 25, 2010

Ahmet Yildiz

A Turkish father is the first to be prosecuted for the murder of his son, an honour killing, because he was gay.

Yahya Yildiz, 49, who is on the run and is being tried in absentia for the June 2008 honor killing of his son for being gay.

Ahmet Yildiz, came out to his family October 2007. His family refused to accept the fact that he was gay, and what made matters even worse for the family was the fact that he was not living with his German Turk boyfriend, Ibrahim Can. The irate family then proceeded in threatening Ahmet with this life, which leads to the gay couple reporting it to the local police. The police and other local law enforcement however did not respond to the threats, leaving the already vulnerable young man more so.

On July 15, 2008, the worse possible happened to Ahmet. He died in a shooting incident at the hands of his father, with his father subsequently fleeing to Iraq. The case was initially kept quiet, but international media attention and exposure lead to criticism on how the authorities failed the 26-year-old student.

Ahmet’s partner Ibrahim Can said: “If the authorities had taken our complaints seriously, then he would still be alive.”

Can also called for all those involved in covering up the case and not pursuing it to the fullest to be charged, but he said: ‘my expectations from the trial are minimal’.

Oner Ceylan of Istanbul's gay rights group Lambda in response to the trial said: "I think it is important that people, that this fact, that a father can kill his son, simply because of his sexual orientation. That is an important awareness, because maybe they were cases before, but we just did not know."

He added: "We read in the news maybe a father killed, but we did not know why before. So I think it’s a very important step."

"When you talk about violence people do not really exactly know what you are talking about. When you have the incidents, the cases and everything, then it more clear to them that inevitably there have been some human-rights violations. And with the police we have been trying to communicate with the city government, because the police reports to them."

I think we are making some progress, but these things are deep-rooted, so you cannot expect things to be just great within years or decades."

Scott Long from the Human Rights Watch felt violence directed at the LGBT community was quite prevalent, with authorities in most cases turning a blind eye.

He said: "People who express their sexuality, people who differ from these cultural norms, from masculinity and femininity, are abused, are beaten, are raped, and are excluded from the family. That there is violence at every level and most conspicuously that the government does not intervene to stop it."

A recent study estimated one person dies every week in Istanbul as a result of honor killings, with little or no persecution of those who committed the heinous crime.

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