Turkey’s "Gay Poster Boy" Possible Victim of Honor Killing

Ahmet Yildiz, 26, was shot and killed last week in Turkey. The Independent, an online U.K. news source, reported Saturday that friends of the deceased believe he was a victim of Turkey’s first gay "honor killing," or the murder of someone resisting conservative social mores.

“He fell victim to a war between old mentalities and growing civil liberties,” Yildiz’s friend Sedef Cakmak told the Independent. “I feel helpless. We are trying to raise awareness of gay rights in this country, but the more visible we become, the more we open ourselves up to this sort of attack.”

Yildiz, who had represented Turkey at an LGBT event in San Francisco last year and was known as "Turkey's Gay Poster Boy," may have been targeted after coming out as gay earlier this year. According to the Independent, Yildiz reported to a prosecutor that he was receiving death threats five months before the fatal attack, but no action was taken.

Police are currently investigating the murder. (The Advocate)

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Name: Ken
Date posted: 10/27/2008 5:07:00 AM
Hometown: Dallas

Comment:
I am shocked that the world as advanced as we are, still are so ignorant. I pray that all gay Turkish men and women and transgender person can live free and without punishment. God loves all and to kill someone in the name of God better make sure that the God your praying to is a real God.
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Name: br
Date posted: 10/6/2008 7:54:00 PM
Hometown: Los Angeles

Comment:
good killing
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Name: Chris
Date posted: 7/22/2008 1:58:00 PM
Hometown: Chicago, IL

Comment:
That's right - murder in the name of God - how unimaginably pathetic those people are.
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Name: Robert
Date posted: 7/22/2008 1:11:00 PM
Hometown: NC

Comment:
i dout its the first and i dout it will be the last, even here in the US its still not uncommon for somone to be shot for being gay. Keep in mind, people kill eachother in the middle east over tribal almost microscopic culteral diffrences. Here people will kill for 5 bucks. So long as people kill for such pathetic reasons, no one is 100% safe anywhere.
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Name: Roger Burr
Date posted: 7/22/2008 12:30:00 PM
Hometown: Marble Hill, MO

Comment:
Pray this is the last such victim of hatred and ignorance. Turkey is the most progressive and forward-looking of Muslim countries and a loyal ally of the U.S. Although much still needs to be done; the Turks are making great strides in social progress. Hopefully this young man will be Turkey's Matthew Shepard, and no more such killings will occur.
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Name: Unknown
Date posted: 7/21/2008 2:28:00 PM
Hometown: Houston

Comment:
Police are currently investigating the murder. Yea and we know nothing will come out of that.

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