Turkish Singer Shot in the Head

NEW DELHI: A young talent show singer was shot in the head in Turkey after being subjected to a long series of threats for being part of a show. She is severely injured and is in a local hospital.

Mutlu Kaya, 19, hails from Diyarbakir, a conservative Kurdish region in southeast Turkey. Her attackers shot her through a window after making an entry into the garden outside the venue. The singer was having dinner with her siblings when she was fired at.

Police detained three persons for the attempted killing on Tuesday, one of whom was Kaya’s ex-boyfriend, a 26 year old man named, Veysi E. He though, denied being complicit in the crime and said he didn’t fire the shots. “I was against her participation in the competition, but it was not me who shot her,” he reportedly told the police.

He accepted being against Kaya’s participation in the show and said that he had once talked her out of it too. “Her family always wanted her to participate in these talent shows, but I didn’t want her to. We argued a lot because of that. She was going to participate in O Ses Türkiye before, but I did not allow that. She listened to me and did not participate in that competition,” he said, as reported by Guardian.

The former paramour blamed the victim for his drinking and smoking habit, after saying that he was drinking on the night of the shooting as well. “When I met her I neither drank nor smoked. I started that because of all these worries,” he said.

According to local media reports, Kaya had even reported her boyfriend to the Police for constantly threatening her for participating in the singing show. She had started receiving threats, mainly from her father’s relatives, when she first appeared on Sesi Çok Güzel in April.

“When they heard that I was going to join the competition, they told me they would kill me. I am afraid,” Kaya had reportedly told the talent show’s production team.

Sibel Can, country’s best known folk-singer and a mentor of the Victim, showed her sentiments for the critically injured singer.

“She is my Cinderella, my princess. I am behind her all the way,” she said, and added further that, “These threats should not destroy her future. Mutlu will get a professional singing education. Her future will be as beautiful as her voice.”

Can was instrumental in pursuing the talented teenager to participate in the talent show. She had visited Kaya at the school canteen where she worked to support her mother and eight siblings.

Turkish people have not been taking these crimes lightly, of late, especially after the rape and murder of Ozgecan Azlan, another teenager, whose death had sparked unprecedented protests on the streets of Turkey. Azlan was beaten to death with an iron bar by a minibus driver after he had abducted her.

Gender crimes have seen a surge in recent years in the secular country, which is also considered among the most modern among the nations with a Muslim majority. According to a survey done by Happy Kids Association and a local University, almost one third of men didn’t have any problem using violence to control women.

“A total of 34 percent of men find violence "occasionally necessary," while 28 percent said violence could be used to discipline women, according to a nationwide survey conducted among 3,500 men”, the report stated.