Gay Honor Killing

(Istanbul, Turkey) A 26-year-old, gay physics student, Ahmet Yildiz, died this week after being shot as he was leaving a cafe near the Bosphorus Strait. Yildiz, although fatally wounded, had tried to escape in his car but was chased by his attackers and ultimately crashed on the side of the road.

Many believe that the death of Yildiz is Turkey's first gay honor killing. Outspoken and visible, Mr. Yildiz was Turkey's representative at an international gay festival in San Francisco last year. His family rejected his claims of homosexuality and prodded him to see a doctor to be cured.

"He fell victim to a war between old mentalities and growing civil liberties," says Sedef Cakmak, a friend and a member of the gay rights lobby group Lambda.

"I feel helpless: we are trying to raise awareness of gay rights in this country, but the more visible we become, the more we open ourselves up to this sort of attack."

Before his death, Mr. Yildiz received death threats and reported them to the police. He was provided no protection and his complaints were not pursued. Instead, the police are now investigating his murder.

For gay rights groups, the student's inability to get protection was a typical by-product of the indifference, if not hostility, with which a broad swathe of Turkish society views homosexuality. The military, for example, sees it as an "illness". Men applying for an exemption to obligatory military service on grounds of homosexuality must provide proof - either in the form of an anal examination, or photographs.

"The media ignores or laughs off violence against gays," says Buse Kilickaya, a member of the gay lobbying group Pink Life, adding that Ahmet Yildiz's death "risks being swept under the carpet and forgotten like other cases in the past". [...]

"We've been trying to contact Ahmet's family since Wednesday, to get them to take responsibility for the funeral," one of the victim's friends said yesterday, standing outside the morgue where his body has been for three days. "There's no answer, and I don't think they are going to come." The refusal of families to bury their relatives is common after honour-related murders.

When the death threats began, Mr. Yildiz was cautioned to leave the country but he stayed ... and died.

Also: The Jawa Report