Armenian Woman Killed Brutally In Turkey

Amnesty International human rights organization issued a statement criticizing the violent murder of the 85-year-old Armenian woman Maritsa Kuchuk in Turkey. She was beaten, stabbed and decapitated.

The Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper Agos warns that this is not the first case of violence against Armenians. Another woman was assaulted and robbed in December. Amnesty International warns that last year a taxi driver attacked the passenger only because the latter was Armenian.

The international organization does not rule out that Sevak Balkci’s murder on April 24 in the army was due to religious issues and ethnic intolerance.

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The murder of 85-year-old ethnic Armenian woman in Turkey was presented as a regular murder while the Armenian community in Turkey is rather concerned as the details of the case have not been unveiled and the relevant bodies have not spoken up,  Istanbul-based Armenian-Turkish Agos weekly’s editor, Rober Koptas writes.

“The murder of Maritsa Kucuk, from the first glance could have been viewed as a regular case in Turkey – breaking into a house, slashing the throat and stealing some jewelry. The police have started investigation. The family is in pain. This was the only information. The journalists closed the topic and the officials continue keeping silence,” Koptas, ethnic Armenian, wrote.

The editor though reminds that it is the second attack on the ethnic Armenian woman in Istanbul’s Samatya district. “The recent case is already the second case of the attack of ethnic Armenian woman in a month and for a small number of people knowing about it the murder of Maritsa Kucuk was quite alarming and the possible connection of these two cases is terrifying.

The other woman was 87 years old resident of Samatya district. The woman has lost the sight on one eye.

“Maritsa Kucuk’s murder reminded all the Armenians living in Istanbul the previous attack. During the same month, in the same district two Armenian women were attacked, one of them murdered, the other losing an eye. Besides, Kucuk’s son who found the body of his mother said a cross was made on her body with a knife,” the Agos editor wrote, adding that the son though earlier said probably it was not cross.

The incident raised a question among 50,000 Armenians living in Istanbul whether the women were attacked because of their ethnic belonging.

Rober Koptas has addressed few questions, saying that the Armenian community is expecting to get answers to them. Among these questions are whether there was a cross on Maritsa Kucuk’s body, whether the attacks on the two ethnic Armenian women are just a coincidence, whether the robbery is the cause of the attack, and if so why the attacks were so violent. The police told Kucuk family that the attack was committed by amateurs and the arrest of the criminal is a matter of minutes. Kopsar reminded that earlier an Armenian woman beaten by a taxi driver applied to the police and the latter said that the arrest of the taxi driver was a matter of minutes while 15 months have passed and the person has not been arrested yet.

The organization appeals to the Turkish authorities to eliminate intolerance in the society in order to prevent such cases.

Source:  Panorama.am ;  Tert.am