Jurisdiction should judge the rapists, not encourage them

To the press and public,

On 01.02.2011, our friend, a trans woman and member of the MorEL Eskisehir LGBTT Group, was attacked and raped at her own home. The attacker has been threatening to kill our friend. In order to protect our friend, we have placed an official complaint to the Eskisehir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The attacker has assaulted, raped and extorted multiple gay and transsexual individuals in Eskisehir. The gay and transsexual victims fear to place a complaint, and once they do complain they are not taken seriously by the prosecutors. This individual lives off the money he gets from extorting, blackmailing and threatening gay and transsexual people.

We request the prosecution of the offender who has recently threatened our friend by stating “I will find you even if you move”, “If you don’t open the door, I will send my friends around. I’ll make them tie you up and beat you. And with the help of my friends, I’ll come to your house rape you again and then kill you”!

Jurisdiction should judge the rapists, not encourage them!

Three women are subjected to violence and killed based on hate each day in Turkey. A portion of these victims are trans women. Transvestites and transsexuals who are discriminated, unemployed and forced to work as sex workers experience violence in every aspect of their lives.

Unless “hate crime” is defined in the Turkish Penal Code, offenses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite and transsexual (LGBTT) individuals will not be penalized or the offenders will continue to benefit from reduced sentences!

The government should stop ignoring LGBTT people!

As long as the term “gender identity”, which was quietly removed from the “Draft Law on Equality and Combating Discrimination” prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is not included to the law, offenders will continue to commit such crimes and will not receive the penalizations they deserve!

Hate crimes are political and we know who the criminals are!

We will not be silenced about the hate crimes and discrimination towards women, LGBTT’s, Alevi, Armenian and Kurdish people: We will not forget Ayşe Paşalı, Ahmet Yıldız, Dilek İnce, Hrant Dink and Uğur Kaymaz!

The government will be considered an accomplice until the legal sanctions are implemented! As the signatories below we stand by our friend and will continue to follow the case!

We hope jurisdiction will pay attention to our legal complaint and we hope that the media will do their part by informing the public in an ethical manner.

MorEl Eskişehir LGBTT – Socialist Feminist Collective – Kaos GL Derneği – Pink Life LGBTT Solidarity Association – Lambdaistanbul LGBTT Solidarity Association – Black Pink Triangle Izmir LGBTT Association – İstanbul LGBTT Solidarity Association – Hevjîn Diyarbakır LGBTT – Bilkent University Think Colorfully Club – İLLET Group – Initiative Against Homophobia (Cyprus) – FeministBiz