GERMANY: A German-Turkish teenager told a Berlin court yesterday that he shot dead his sister in an "execution-style killing" out of disgust for her western lifestyle.
Ayhan Sürücü (19) said he shot his 23-year-old sister, Hatun, three times in the head on February 7th before leaving her to die in the snow.
"I killed my sister and I acted alone," said the man in a statement. "I can no longer understand my actions."
The killing shocked the country and began a heated debate about so-called "honour killings" and the integration of Turks in German society.
The court heard yesterday how Hatun, born in Berlin and with German citizenship, grew up with five brothers and three sisters but was sent to marry her cousin in Istanbul aged 15.
She returned pregnant to Berlin two years later, gave birth to a son and divorced her husband. She finished her secondary school education and was about to pass her final exams as an electrical technician.
Her family objected when she moved into her own apartment, stopped wearing a head scarf, and began dating a German man. Her brothers threatened her by phone, calling her a "whore".
The youngest brother said that he had acquired a gun and ammunition and went to discuss a family reunion with Hatun.
After a fruitless discussion, she accompanied him to the bus-stop near her apartment. They began arguing again and Hatun said she would go to bed with whom she pleased, according to Ayhan.
"That was too much for me. I pulled out the pistol and shot," he said in his confession. Days later, Berlin police arrested Ayhan and two of his brothers.
Some 53 women were killed and 68 seriously injured in the last decade in Germany in cases involving the Turkish community and so-called restitution of family honour.