Aylin Korkmaz
born 1972
Attempted murder: 21 November 2007
Residence: Baden-Baden
Origin: Turkey / Kurds
Children: 3 common children, 10, 12 and 14 years old at the time of the crime
Perpetrator: her Kurdish ex-husband Mehmet Korkmaz, 48 years old at the time of the crime, in Germany since 1978.
Aylin is not dead. But her injuries are so severe that the prosecutor said during the trial that such injuries usually occur only in corpses.
In March 1991, Aylin went to a trade school in Turkey. She has her diplomas, dreams of studying law, maybe going to England.
But her mother thinks nothing of it and introduces her to a semi-educated Turkish-Kurdish cook living in prosperous Baden-Baden. As her family pushes her, Aylin believes that this marriage is her destiny and that she can do nothing about it - an almost typical constellation between a half arranged, half forced marriage found in many honor killings.
The young woman moves to Baden-Baden, learns German and has three children. After a few years, Mehmet begins to beat her. At first she is not allowed to work, later Mehmet only lets her work at the same gas station along the highway as him. So Aylin becomes a cashier at a highway station, although she has her diploma and speaks good German in the meantime.
In 2003, Aylin divorces him, but she continues to live with Mehmet. This is also not entirely unusual in honor killing cases. For he and his family harass Aylin. She may even fear for the lives of her children. After they finally move out in June 2007, the police impose a neighborhood ban because of new acts of violence.
But Mehmet does not comply. In November 2007, he waits for her at the parking lot, drags her into a locker room and tries to kill her with 27 knife stabs. Two of them aim for the center of her nipples, one cleaves her nose. He cuts off her right ear. Then he lets the police quietly carry him away. When he hears that his wife is still alive, he explodes and vows to kill her as soon as he is free again.
In the courtroom, Mehmet emphasizes how much he loved his wife and what a good father he was. This is also common for honor killers in court. They see themselves as victims of their mean and deceitful wives. They plead for affection even though they planned their crime. Mehmet also has a common justification: "What she did to me - in Turkey they would have done very different things to her for that." Even his defense lawyer does not know if Mehmet speaks German after living in Germany for 30 years.
In August 2008, Mehmet was sentenced by the district court of Baden-Baden to 13 years in prison for attempted murder.
In early 2010, Aylin Kormaz published her book "I screamed for my life."
