Özgecan Aslan was a twenty-year-old Turkish university student whose life was brutally cut short on February 11th, 2015, in the city of Mersin. Her murder not only devastated her family and friends but also influenced a nationwide feminist movement across Türkiye, sparking outrage over gender-based violence and systematic failures to protect women.
Aslan was a first-year psychology student at Çağ University, where she had earned a 50% scholarship. Özgecan had big dreams, she aspired to become a psychologist. Seeing her daughter’s determination to succeed motivated her mom to start working to support her daughter’s education. Aslan also wished to start working at a hotel during summers to help ease her family’s financial burden.
However, on the fateful day of the murder, February 11, 2015, those dreams were shattered. After leaving school, Aslan had gone to a shopping mall in Tarsus with her friend. When they parted ways, she boarded an intercity minibus to return home in Mersin. When her family lost contact with their daughter after she got on the minibus, they grew anxious and immediately filed a missing person report with the police. Their fears soon turned into a reality worse than a nightmare.
A Heinous Crime
During the search for Aslan, authorities became suspicious of a minibus driver who had stopped to ask them for directions. Bloodstains were discovered during a closer inspection of his vehicle. Although the suspects were initially released due to insufficient evidence, a hat that was later identified by Aslan’s father as hers was found. This new piece of evidence led to a renewed investigation.
The two suspects, the father of the driver of the minibus and his friend, later confessed to having murdered the young girl along with the driver, Suphi Altındöken. Altındöken admitted to deliberately altering his route and turning towards the isolated Tarsus-Mersin highway instead of following the designated road. When Aslan realized that the driver had changed the route and resisted his attempt to sexually assault her, she defended herself with a pepper spray. Altındöken attacked the young woman with a knife and a metal rod. He later sought help from his father and friend in order to dispose of the body.
To prevent Aslan’s body from being identified by authorities, they attempted to burn her body in a forest and cut off her hands to remove potential evidence of her immense struggle against the attempted rape. Forensic reports confirmed that Aslan’s fierce resistance had prevented the assault.
A Broken System
The backgrounds of the perpetrators, Suphi Altındöken, and his accomplice father painted a disturbing picture. They had been revealed to come from a wealthy family in Tarsus but had resorted to driving minibuses after a financial ruin. Criminal reports indicated that the father, Necmettin Altındöken, had a prior conviction for smuggling and was involved in a recent traffic accident. Aslan’s friends later claimed that riding minibuses was a constant challenge in their area. Women passengers were often subjected to harassment as the drivers and passengers stared at them through mirrors, a source of fear for students regularly commuting by minibus.
After all suspects were arrested, Altındöken also confessed to his part in the crime. The case also highlighted systematic flaws in the legal process as according to Turkish law, a suspect must be represented by a lawyer for the case to proceed to trial. Initially, finding legal representations for the suspects proved to be difficult, as 1,600 lawyers from the Mersin Bar Association refused to defend Altındöken, calling him a “monster.”
Following the delay in the trial process, on February 16, 2015, Altındöken changed his statement, claiming he committed the crime while intoxicated and with no intent of sexually assaulting her. However, despite his efforts, on December 3, 2015, the court sentenced Suphi Altındöken to aggravated life imprisonment for “premeditated murder with monstrous intent” and additional years of other charges. His father and friend also received aggravated life sentences. About a year after Altındöken’s imprisonment, on April 11, 2016, the perpetrator was fatally shot in Adana’s Kürkçüler Prison by an inmate who felt that the justice was incomplete, Gültekin Alan. His father also suffered injuries in the attack.
Several parks, cultural centers, and public spaces in Türkiye were named after Özgecan Aslan’s memory, and the young woman’s story was also featured in the 2017 documentary Stolen Lives in which she was portrayed by actress Özge Özkaplan.
Wider implications
Özgecan Aslan’s tragic murder triggered a series of nationwide protests the rising numbers of femicide rates and gender-based violence on February 14, 2015. International press coverage and subsequent reactions regarding the heart-breaking fate of Aslan followed as well. Her death became a symbol of the systematic violence women face and denounce the rising tide of femicide.
Aslan’s violent death marked what soon became a normalized pattern across the increasing rates of femicides in Türkiye. It began the nationwide cries of women who were continuously silenced by the failures of the legal system. Despite the outrage, femicide remains a persistent issue in Türkiye. Özgecan’s story is one of many, each a tragic reminder of the work still to be done. Her death, however, was not in vain. It sparked a movement, united a nation in grief and anger, and brought global attention to an epidemic of violence that can no longer be ignored.
Edited by: Ömer Gökce