A young woman in Turkey’s western city of Balıkesir killed her husband on 13 August, after she had been subjected to constant violence, threats and various forms of abuse for seven years.
While Rümeysa Aydın, a mother with two children, is in custody awaiting trial, her lawyer, Neslihan Çallığlu, spoke to Jin News, and reported the abuses and threats her client had been subjected to throughout her marriage.
She reported that Rümeysa Aydın had clearly stated that her husband, Murat Aydın, had confidently and insistently informed her that he would face no legal processes even if he’d killed her and her children.
“He’d tell Rümeysa the same things after each assault. ‘If you file a complaint against me, they’ll let me out just within a couple of hours. Then I’ll eradicate you,’ he’d say. He meant everyone: The children, Rümeysa’s mother and father. (…) ‘Nothing will happen to me’ he’d say.”
Çallığlu also indicated that there had been domestic violence since the very beginning of the marriage, and it actually got worse: “This continued for seven years, getting more brutal each time. There was also psychological, physical and sexual abuse all the time. This was a life of a hostage confined in an isolated house. The threats targeted not only her, but also her children and her parents. Her husband even trained dogs to prevent her from escaping the house.”
Çallıoğlu emphasized how the Istanbul Convention could have been implemented to shield Rümeysa Aydın and other women in similar situations from domestic violence and abuse. Now that Turkey has officially withdrawn from the Convention, such protection is not possible: “If the Istanbul Convention had been implemented properly, we could have helped Rümeysa. That shield is now gone. It can’t be implemented.”
She said she expected the first session of the trial to be held by the end of September.
