Turkey: suspected serial killer detained

Via Hurriyet Daily News and Today’s Zaman I learn of the consecutive murders of three women in the İzmir province since Saturday. A cis man, identified only by his initials (H.A.) was apprehended early on Wednesday.

H.A.’s first alleged victim was Esar Yaşar, a female bank employee. She was shot in the head Saturday night in the Balçova district.

The second victim, Ayşe Selen Ayla, was attacked near her house.

The last victim, Has, a 30-year-old transvestite, was murdered Monday night when she was shot in the head in her car in the Konak district.

The suspect stole the victims’ bags and used the same gun in all three cases.

My condolences to the families, loved ones and friends of the murdered women.

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ETA: As I have said before:

Across this fucked-up planet of ours, trans women are murdered at the rate of one every 52.5 hours – if this figure was translated into the cis community, it would equate to one cis woman murdered every 23 seconds, for no reason other than that they were cis.

So don’t tell me that our numbers are too small to get worked up about; proportionately the murders of trans women are of a scale that, in other contexts, would be considered near genocidal. If 1,332,000 cis women globally had been murdered in the past two years, for nothing more or less than being cis women, would that be ignored the way our murders are? Because, by a quick back-of-an-envelope calculation, that’s what our murder rate would translate to in cis society.

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Update, 29 April: One of the victims, Azra, was one of the first members of Siyah Pembe, which the local İzmir government has been trying to shut down through a law suit (I wrote about it here).

Members of Siyah Pembe staged a silent protest and a candlelight vigil in İzmir to honour her memory and there are videos of the protest here

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Previous related posts:

• Turkey/UK: Home Office supports man’s transition (March 17, 2010)
• Turkey: IWD for those on the margins of society (March 8, 2010)
• Turkey: Stop violence against transgender people (February 22, 2010)
• Istanbul: another woman murdered (February 17, 2010)
• Turkey: Case to close Siyah Pembe adjourned after first hearing (February 11, 2010)
• Turkey: another woman murdered (February 9, 2010)
• Turkey: cis man sentenced to life imprisonment for deliberate homicide and aggravated looting (January 25, 2010)
• *UPDATE* Turkey: another LGBT rights organization faces closure (December 16, 2009)
• Turkey: Police try to prevent submission of human rights petition by trans protesters (November 2, 2009)
• Turkey: another LGBT rights organization faces closure (October 26, 2009)
• Turkey: Murderer of Melek K sentenced to life imprisonment? (October 18, 2009)
• Turkey: Second hearing in the trial for the murder of Melek K adjourned (October 16, 2009)
• Not-so-easy money (October 1, 2009)
• Easy money (September 29, 2009)
• Turkey: Trans novel banned (August 15, 2009)
• Human rights violations against LGBT individuals in Turkey in 2008 (August 9, 2009)
• Turkey: trials in connection with the murders of two trans women now under way (July 9, 2009)
• Unsafe haven: LGBT asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey (July 8, 2009)
• Turkey – new Chief of Police for Istanbul. Will this bring an end to the “undeclared war” against trans women? (June 15, 2009)
• Turkish policemen on trial for attack on trans woman (May 29, 2009)
• Turkey: another trans woman stabbed to death – UPDATE (May 29, 2009)
• Turkey: another trans woman stabbed to death (May 25, 2009)
• Turkish parliament questioned on trans safety (May 12, 2009)
• Lambda Istanbul granted permission to continue operating (May 7, 2009)
• Suspected murderer of trans rights activist arrested in Turkey (April 21, 2009)
• Every 15 days, another trans person is murdered in Turkey (April 14, 2009)
• The undeclared war against LGBTT people in Turkey continues (March 29, 2009)
• Another trans woman murdered in Turkey (March 14, 2009)
• Trans woman stabbed to death in Istanbul (March 12, 2009)
• Lambda Istanbul wins appeal against closure (January 28, 2009)
• Trans rights abuses in Turkey (November 29, 2008)

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