Honour killing story

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Ayse Banu Ö.
born 1958
shot: January 3, 2009
Residence: Berlin
Origin: Turkey
Children: 2 daughters from her first marriage (ages 24, 27)
Perpetrator: her Turkish husband Turgut, age 58 at the time of the crime.
Ayse came to Germany in 1979 because she married a doctor of Turkish origin in Berlin. It is possible that she is an imported bride. There are two daughters from the marriage, who live with their mother after they divorced in the early 1990s.

Ayse has studied Turkish and English in Turkey and teaches as an elementary school teacher at the Aziz-Nesin-Europaschule in Berlin-Kreuzberg. She is considered a very popular teacher and mainstay of the school, which has predominantly students from Turkish families.

Ayse now holds a German passport. In 2007 she remarried. The groom is a man 8 years older from Turkey. At the turn of the year 2008/2009, she goes to Istanbul to visit him. Turgut has a building materials company there. Another company is registered in Berlin under his wife's address.

On the night of January 3, 2009, Turgut shoots his wife in the head around 4:00 am. With a lawyer, he turns himself in to the police and claims that he thought the magazine was empty.

More is not known. There may have been a dispute over Ayse's life and profession in Germany. Or about whether Turgut could come to Germany. Many of Ayse's students are learning of the crime for the first time from the newspaper.

What is an honour killing?

An honour killing is a murder in the name of honour. If a brother murders his sister to restore family honour, it is an honour killing. According to activists, the most common reasons for honour killings are as the victim:

Questions about honour killings

  • refuses to cooperate in an arranged marriage.

  • wants to end the relationship.

  • was the victim of rape or sexual assault.

  • was accused of having a sexual relationship outside of marriage.

Human rights activists believe that 100,000 honour killings are carried out every year, most of which are not reported to the authorities and some are even deliberately covered up by the authorities themselves, for example because the perpetrators are good friends with local policemen, officials or politicians. Violence against girls and women remains a serious problem in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Serbia and Turkey.

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