Turkish man says he killed wife because she 'went out without permission'

A Turkish man named Hüseyin Temurtaş shot his wife five times on March 14 because she went out without his "permission," he said in his statement to police. Hüsna Temurtaş died at the hospital, while the assailant was arrested and imprisoned after fleeing the scene of the crime.

Duvar English

A Turkish man who killed his wife on March 14 said that he did so to "clean his reputation," as his wife had been going out without his "permission," according to his police testimony. 

Hüseyin Temurtaş fled his apartment after shooting his wife Hüsna Temurtaş five times with a gun. He was arrested and imprisoned shortly after in the Bornova district of Aegean İzmir.

The assailant said that he wanted to cleanse his "namus," a Turkish word that is the equivalent of one's reputation in personal matters, often in relation to romantic relationships, sexuality, and societal barriers placed on women. 

"She went out without my permission, I cleansed my namus," said Temurtaş, who was known to be violent with his wife prior to murdering her. 

Turkish courts are reluctant to prosecute male violence against women, with many femicide perpetrators being revealed as former offenders, often against the women that they slaughtered.

Dozens of women in Turkey are killed by men each month, with the We Will Stop Femicides Platform reporting 28 women killed by men in February, and 12 suspicious women's deaths.

The epidemic of femicides in Turkey is often blamed on the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) evidently shortcoming policies to sanction women from violence, and their apparent failure to enforce Istanbul Convention, an international treaty that mandates signatories create laws to prevent domestic violence.