On April 23, Children’s Day, we are remembering LGBTI+ children’s rights: Seven years ago, when he was 17 years old, Roşin Çiçek was killed by his father and uncles for being a “homosexual.”

Source: “Remembrance on April 23: Roşin Çiçek,” (23 Nisan’da hatırlatıyoruz: Roşin Çiçek), kaosgl.org, April 23, 2019, http://kaosgl.org/sayfa.php?id=28118

Today is April 23, Children’s Day. This day was gifted to children, however LGBTI+ children’s right to life is under threat. Roşin Çiçek was a child who was killed by his family for being homosexual.

 

The family attacked human rights advocates during the trial

Seven years ago, when he was 17 years old, his father and uncles killed Roşin Çiçek. Roşin was a homosexual and his family killed him in July 2012. His father claimed that he had shot him “by mistake”, but the autopsy revealed that the shots were adjacent.

His father, Metin Çiçek, was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, and his uncles Mehmet Alican Çiçek and Şeyhmus Çiçek were sentenced to life imprisonment. During the trail on February 10, 2014 the family members attacked advocates of LGBTI+ rights. While the police claimed that it was not possible to maintain security, the court took the advocates out of the courtroom and refused their requests for intervention.

The uncles were sentenced to life imprisonment while the father was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment.

The court refused requests for intervention made by SPoD, LambdaIstanbul LGBTI and parliament member Mahmut Tanal on the grounds that they were not “impacted by the crime”.

Attorney Fırat Söyle stated that the motive for the murder was hate. The family’s attorney on the other hand, accused those who had gathered to demand justice for Roşin Çiçek. The family’s attorney stated the family could not be homophobic because they were “modern and bourgeois”, and claimed that the father and uncles who murdered Roşin were victimized.

Metin Çiçek, his father, confessed to the murder saying “I wanted to scare my child. Should he have been a terrorist? We argued and I shot him.”

In a written statement the same day, Sezgin Tanrıkulu, CHP deputy leader at the time, proclaimed that the Roşin Çiçek case was a hate crime:

“The constitution needs to include the necessary laws to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual individuals against hate crimes and it is essential for the government to stop turning a deaf ear to these demands. It is unacceptable for people to have their rights violated because of their sexual orientation; and there needs to be a serious transformation in society in order to prevent oppression, attacks and crimes against these individuals. To stop murders such as the Roşin Çiçek murder, the AKP government and all political institutions, non-governmental organizations, and opinion leaders need to do their part. Otherwise, they are conspirators in hate crimes.”

 

The Court of Cassation upheld the decision

In 2017, the Court of Cassation rejected the defendants’ and SpoD’s requests for appeal and upheld the decision. Roşin’s killers will be in prison for life.