Public indignation has reached a breaking point after a woman’s dismembered body was recovered from an Istanbul dumpster on Jan. 24, sparking immediate calls from organizations for mass street demonstrations against systemic violence toward women.
Late Jan. 24 evening, a waste collector in Şişli’s Kurtuluş neighborhood alerted authorities after finding a body discarded and wrapped in a bedsheet.
Initial examinations revealed that the victim had been decapitated.
Authorities later identified the victim as 36-year-old Uzbek national Durdona Khokimova.
According to prosecutors, surveillance camera footage from the surrounding area showed two men carrying a suitcase and acting suspiciously near the garbage containers.
The suspects were identified as Dilshod Akhrol Ugli Turdimurotov, 31, and Gofurjon Akmalkhonovich Kamalkhodaev, 29, both Uzbek nationals.
They were detained at Istanbul Airport while attempting to flee to Georgia, according to local media reports.
Reports said that during police questioning, Turdimurotov confessed to the killing, stating that he had been in a romantic relationship with the victim and that the crime occurred following an argument.
The brutal murder has ignited a wave of outrage across social media and throughout the local community.
In response, women’s rights organizations and residents called for a protest to condemn the rising tide of femicide.
Demonstrators were scheduled to gather on Jan. 25 at the Osmanbey–Pangaltı exit and march to Kuyulubağ Street, where the body was found.
According to data from the Turkish Women’s Associations Federation (TKDF), 420 women were killed last year, while 508 women died under suspicious circumstances, bringing the total number of femicide-related cases to 928.
Experts have drawn particular attention to the sharp rise in suspicious deaths.
Reports indicate that approximately 97 percent of women are killed by men they know, most commonly by their husbands, former spouses or current or former partners.
