In 2025 alone, almost 600 women in Turkey died under unclear circumstances. Officially, they are declared suicides, but relatives of the victims and human rights activists doubt this. Relatives of the victims speak of contradictory testimonies, unclear circumstances and investigations that were terminated at a too early stage. In many cases, crucial questions remain open: what happened in the apartments? Why can it not be clearly clarified whether there was foreign interference?
Unexplained deaths
"The system favors perpetrators of crimes. The one who kills his wife with a gun or a knife usually belongs to the less educated and poorer strata of society. And the suspects in the "unexplained deaths" of women are mostly wealthy and educated," says Turkish lawyer Yaşar Karakan. Because when no traces of foreign interference are found, the perpetrators almost always go unpunished.
Aynur Kocak lost her sister, who fell from the balcony of her apartment in the Turkish city of Gaziantep nearly six years ago - and in the presence of her husband and son-in-law. The mother of two wanted a divorce.
"A person who takes their own life still leaves some traces. My sister was in a great mood when she left our parents' apartment an hour earlier! She had plans for the summer vacation and had even packed her bags - she was getting ready to travel with her son to Ankara for a medical examination.".
Sezay Kocak fell from the third floor, where the family's home is located. Her brother-in-law claims that she climbed onto the railing, which she was holding onto with one hand, and then flew off the balcony. Shortly before, the police received an emergency call from neighbors who said "they are killing a woman there." However, the police were slow. After the fall, Sezay was still alive, but paramedics were unable to save her. The prosecutor's office classified the case as suicide and closed the investigation. The victim's husband did not respond to questions sent to him by DW at all.
The number of these suspicious cases has been growing for years
Turkish human rights activists report nearly 600 dead women in 2025 alone. However, almost half of these deaths are suspicious because they have not been fully investigated and the investigations have been discontinued. It is believed that at least 52 women died after falling from balconies or windows. The number has been increasing for years.
Activist Tucba Asik is part of a human rights network investigating these cases in more detail. She herself does not believe that these are suicides - at the protests she prefers to talk about femicides: “Women in Turkey are already saying out loud: Don't believe it if they say I committed suicide! I would not do such a thing. Of course, in some of these cases it cannot be ruled out that the women took their own lives. But we ask the judiciary to investigate these cases thoroughly and not to destroy evidence”.
Düygu Soytepe died in similar circumstances two and a half years ago in Ankara - the 24-year-old woman fell from the 37th floor of a skyscraper. There was a man in the apartment with whom she had a relationship. The mother Filiz Alkan still cannot get over her daughter's death and does not believe it was a suicide. “This simply does not fit the image I have of my daughter. And even if she had intended to take her own life - why didn't the man next to her try to stop her? Why didn't he call me?“, she asks.
Judicial authorities do not provide an answer
The prosecutor in the case classified Duigu's death as a suicide - even before the autopsy was performed, says Filiz Alkan. The prosecutor's office pointed out that her daughter worked in a nightclub: “The prosecutor claimed that my daughter used drugs and alcohol. That's why she threw herself from the balcony”. The prosecutor in the case refused to give an interview to DW, and her assistant informed us that the case was closed back in 2024. Our request for access to the investigation file also went unanswered.
In another case, a nurse fell from the 27th floor of an apartment building in the Istanbul suburb of Kartal. The young woman was visiting an acquaintance that evening, but he refused to speak, citing the fact that the investigation is not yet complete.
Four weeks after the fatal incident, a message suddenly appeared that the victim had sent to her mother's mobile phone. It appeared that she was asking her parents to take good care of her son. A former colleague and friend of the deceased expressed doubts to DW that the message in question was from the deceased woman. Turkish women's rights activists also do not believe in the suicide version, who also classify her death as a so-called “suspicious case“.
Women take their own lives much less often
Are there really so many female suicides in Turkey? Istanbul sociologist Mehmet Eskin has been dealing with suicide as a public problem for many years. He does not want to comment on individual cases, but says that it is rare for women to decide to end their lives by jumping off a balcony: "They usually take pills when they want to commit suicide. And if you look at Turkish suicide statistics, you will see that women make up at most 20 percent of them. It is mostly men who take their own lives."
Aynur Kocak from Gaziantep is convinced that her sister did not commit suicide. She has hired a lawyer and is fighting to reopen the investigation, as many clues to someone else's guilt have not been taken into account by the prosecutor's office. For example, the testimony of a neighbor who saw the deceased's husband coming down the stairs and ordering: "This scoundrel gets what she deserves."
But the judicial authorities in Turkey are refusing to reopen the case. Aynur Kocak is still determined to go all the way – if necessary to the European Court of Human Rights. She says she owes it to her sister, who never wanted to leave this world.
Authors: Gunnar Köhne | Nevin Sungur