Filiz Zeyrek /JINHA

ADANA - Emine Doğan, the mother of the woman who killed her abusive husband in Turkey's southern city of Adana, has called for a just outcome for her daughter Çilem.

Çilem Doğan, 28, had repeatedly tried to escape her abusive husband, Hasan Karabulut. For years, Hasan (a drug dealer) had beaten Çilem and forced her into sex work to raise money for him.

On the day of the killing, Hasan told Çilem to ready her bag and put on the new clothes he had bought her. He had a plan to take her to the tourist city of Antalya, force her to conduct sex work and eventually bring her younger sister into the operation as well. When she objected, he put a gun to her head and threatened to kill her family. These were the events that led Çilem to reach for the gun hidden under Hasan's pillow and shoot him.

Although Çilem had filed complaints with the police repeatedly throughout the abusive marriage, police never took any action to stop Hasan, said Çilem's mother Emine. Hasan had beaten Çilem in front of her sixteen-month-old child on repeated occasions, but Çilem was trapped by Hasan's threats to kill her family.

Çilem's mother, Emine, recalled the countless times that her daughter had fled to her house, covered in blood and bruises.

"Eventually, when I asked her, 'why are you going back to him?' she told me, 'one day you'll understand. Apparently, he had been threatening [to kill] her brother," said Emine.

Emine decried the Turkish media, which has focused on the "thumbs up" gesture that Çilem made as she was taken away in handcuffs. She noted that the gesture was not one of pride, but a signal as she left the forensic medical investigation to signal to her father that she was in good health.

Çilem, said Emine, has used her right to defend herself. She called for justice for her daughter.

(gc/cm)