But “Civilization” was allegedly killed by her grandfather and father while the state was investigating an earlier complaint from the girl that her grandfather was beating her for talking to men -- something that is seen as staining the family’s honor.She lived in Kahta in Adıyaman province. The stories about her do not give any information on whether she was allowed to go to school, but most probably she was not.
Her dead body was found in a cement blocked hole in a small poultry coop in the garden of the house in which she was living with her family, including her eight brothers and sisters. She was suffocated and her body was buried there.
According to the news, one night her father and grandfather sent the whole family away except Medine. They said that Medine should stay at home to take care of the male relatives. One day later when the family returned they were told that she had run away from home, but no one went to the police station to inform them about the “missing Civilization.”
Allegedly her father and grandfather had beaten her because she was talking to men on the telephone. Some stories say she had reported to the police station once with charges against her male relatives, and some stories say that she had actually reported three times. But in any case, there is good reason to believe that she had applied to the police station, which represents the state, which is the entity responsible for the protection of all citizens. At least civilized states do that.
The murder of Civilization cannot be assessed only as a possible crime by her family. It is a crime of the state, which does not have a real policy and real means to tackle the problem of violence against women.
It is true, the Turkish Parliament has passed wonderful legislation for the protection of the victims of violence, but like many other legal amendments which are done for the sake of harmonization with the EU, it is not fully implemented.
Well, the politicians and bureaucrats are claiming that these amendments were done for the sake of the citizens for the betterment of their lives, but that, of course, implementation will take time. They are also saying that there isn’t much they can do; Turkey needs time for a change in mentality and blah, blah, blah…
But what they are not admitting is that they are not doing much about the mental change necessary to implement the reforms, including the legislation to prevent violence against women.
The recent method that the state was thinking of was to make women who went to police stations claiming they were victims of violence sign a declaration saying that they had willingly withdrawn their application, if they then decided to do so. What a brilliant idea, to subvert the whole process and place the responsibility on the shoulders of the victims of violence, so the state once more can say what more can I do?
Outside the police stations there are police officers on duty -- none of them are women. It is a fact well known by people who deal with domestic violence that many women are not even able to get past this first hurdle at the police station and actually enter it.
When you look at the issue of domestic violence and the discussions about it, you might think that there are lots of things going on to make the situation better. You know what? It’s not true.
A serious state first of all would have developed a comprehensive policy for fighting domestic violence. There would be centers for women open 24 hours solely to serve the needs of victims of domestic violence. Every single policeman, public prosecutor and judge would be trained, not only in the legislation but also about how to address a woman who is already scared because she is a victim. Hospital personnel, especially those working in emergency departments, would be trained not to believe women who go to the hospital saying they fell down the stairs.
There would be mass campaigns to teach women what to do if they are subjected to violence. There would be sanctions against the municipalities which do not establish shelters although it is compulsory by law if their population exceeds 50,000. But to establish a shelter is not good enough, those women should be taught to stand on their own two feet.
Turkey is discussing many things nowadays, all of them are very important: the democratization initiative, freedom of the press, coup attempts, gangs, sending troops to Afghanistan. All of them are related to civilization but the problem is -- Civilization was killed.
