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“In Islamic culture, the woman is the bearer of the family decency. She must maintain the honour of the family. Men must defend that honour.” If the police are right, Mrs Surucu was the sixth victim of honour killings among Berlin’s 200,000-strong Turkish community in as many months.
She had been married to her cousin eight years before in an arranged marriage, but had then run away - taking her five-year-old son with her.
Mrs Surucu’s killing has led to an unusually strong public reaction - with Turkish women taking to the streets to protest.
“This tragedy has shaken us awake. We’ve been very surprised by the response,” says Eren Unsal from the Association of Secular Turks.
“This is the first time that political decision-makers, NGOs, and so on have been ready to sit down at the same table together and think about what must be done. This has never happened before.”
‘Blind eye’
But not everyone shares the outrage. On a school playground, just yards from where the killing occurred, children were heard praising it. The victim, they said, had lived like a German.
And it was not the only response of its kind.
Our job is to explain Islam. That’s what has a permanent effect - clearing up certain false ideas about Islam in people’s minds
Huseyin Midik Mosques’ association"I heard a young Turkish lady said on a Turkish radio station ‘she deserved it because she took off her headscarf’. This is incredible," says Ozcan Mutlu, one of the few Turks sitting on the Berlin city council.
He says the problem has been exacerbated by the German authorities turning a blind eye to it.
"For instance, when a Turkish man beat his wife, he didn’t get the same punishment as when a German did it. They tried to explain it with the culture, the traditions, and with the religion.
“That’s stupid, you cannot do that. There is no cultural or religious excuse for beating women, and there can be no less punishment for honour killings. But in Germany it was the fact in the past years.”
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4345459.stm
She had been married to her cousin eight years before in an arranged marriage, but had then run away - taking her five-year-old son with her.
Mrs Surucu’s killing has led to an unusually strong public reaction - with Turkish women taking to the streets to protest.
“This tragedy has shaken us awake. We’ve been very surprised by the response,” says Eren Unsal from the Association of Secular Turks.
“This is the first time that political decision-makers, NGOs, and so on have been ready to sit down at the same table together and think about what must be done. This has never happened before.”
‘Blind eye’
But not everyone shares the outrage. On a school playground, just yards from where the killing occurred, children were heard praising it. The victim, they said, had lived like a German.
And it was not the only response of its kind.
Our job is to explain Islam. That’s what has a permanent effect - clearing up certain false ideas about Islam in people’s minds
Huseyin Midik Mosques’ association"I heard a young Turkish lady said on a Turkish radio station ‘she deserved it because she took off her headscarf’. This is incredible," says Ozcan Mutlu, one of the few Turks sitting on the Berlin city council.
He says the problem has been exacerbated by the German authorities turning a blind eye to it.
"For instance, when a Turkish man beat his wife, he didn’t get the same punishment as when a German did it. They tried to explain it with the culture, the traditions, and with the religion.
“That’s stupid, you cannot do that. There is no cultural or religious excuse for beating women, and there can be no less punishment for honour killings. But in Germany it was the fact in the past years.”
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4345459.stm