Four brothers confess to killing sister for ‘hanging around with men’ in Turkish capital

Fevzi Kızılkoyun – ANKARA

Four brothers have been arrested in the Turkish capital Ankara for killing their sister “because she was socializing with men.”Özlem Aykutluğ, 35, was found shot dead in Ankara on Feb. 28 and homicide department police officers focused their investigation on her family in the eastern province of Kars.Aykutluğ, a mother of two children, was killed with six bullets on the road between Istanbul and Ankara.Police determined that the act was an “honor killing” and said she was brought to Ankara two days before the incident. They concluded that the decision to kill was made by her family.The police detained Aykutluğ’s four brothers – identified as Ersin, 37, Erol, 32, Ferhat, 25 and Yasin, 29 – and they confessed to the murder during cross examination.It was determined that the brothers told Aykutluğ they were going to Istanbul by car, and they killed her while on the road to Istanbul from Ankara.According to their testimonies, Aykutluğ understood that she was about to be murdered and told her brothers to protect her children.“I know you are going to kill me. I beg you to protect my children and not abandon them,” she reportedly said.In their testimonies, the brothers said Aykutluğ was “hanging around with men and everyone in the village was talking about it.”“She put a slur on our family’s honor. We cleaned our honor and we don’t regret it,” they reportedly added.The investigation into the murder also revealed that her husband, Yıldırım Aykutluğ, was using violence against her and had previously escaped from the jail where he was serving time for a separate crime.