This is a very sad story from Turkey (h/t – DoublePlusUndead).
Was Ahmet Yildiz the victim of Turkey’s first gay honour killing? – The Independent (UK) (7/19/08)
In a corner of Istanbul today, the man who might be described as Turkey’s gay poster boy will be buried — a victim, his friends believe, of the country’s deepening friction between an increasingly liberal society and its entrenched conservative traditions.
Ahmet Yildiz, 26, a physics student who represented his country at an international gay gathering in San Francisco last year, was shot leaving a cafe near the Bosphorus strait this week. Fatally wounded, the student tried to flee the attackers in his car, but lost control, crashed at the side of the road and died shortly afterwards in hospital. His friends believe Mr Yildiz was the victim of the country’s first gay honour killing.
Please read the whole story. It is, for the most part, well-written and documents a horrific problem throughout the world.
I would make two simple observations, however. Â
First, I don’t recall ever hearing about Evangelical Christians “honor killing” their gay relatives. My point: This item from Turkey is an example of a true homophobic societal problem. Further, most gay bashings that are reported in the USA take place at significantly higher rates in urban locations — Blue States, if you will, that are allegedly more “tolerant”. Â
The gay murder in Turkey should provide you with some perspective in the world of gay tolerance; since all we are ever being told by our Gay Leaders is how bad Reagan Bush Bush McCain will be for American gays. Get those Montana Gay Concentration Camps ready, folks!  They’ve been buildin’ them since 1980!!!  They HAVE to be done by now!
*sigh*
My other observation is that if you missed just one word in the last paragraph of the Independent’s story — it might have slipped your mind that the “entrenched conservative traditions” mentioned in the first paragraph are Islamic sharia law traditions.  I guess those “pesky immigrant kids” who riot in France are infiltrating Turkey now?
In the Liberal World of Moral Relativism — right and wrong have no meaning nor purpose. Unless it is your blood on the sidewalk.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
Isn’t it wonderful to live in a country where no one is ever killed just because he/she is gay. “Somewhere over the rainbow…”
Isn’t it wonderful to live in a country where no one is ever murdered regardless of the reason. Can you name one?
Murder, such a horrific crime and libs wanted murderers like Tookie spared from the death penalty and advocate against the death penalty in general.
Murder, if you prove you are insane then you won’t be found guilty of the crime. I see the 5 children in Houston that were murdered by their protector for God’s knows why. Can you imagine the older ones knowing their fate after seeing the younger ones lay lifeless on that bathroom floor. Yet, NOT GUILTY was the verdict (by reason of insanity of course.)
I would bet that the murderer that beheaded and canibalized his victim on that bus in Manitoba could be found insane as well.
MURDERERS DESERVE THE DEATH PENALTY REGARDLESS OF THE MENTAL STATUS! THEY ARE GUILTY!
Gee.. you think, Einstein?
Wow.. that’s a pretty gutsy assertion to put out there.
lol
May the poor man’s memory be eternal, and may his family be comforted.
As a gay man of Greek extraction, I am in no way predisposed towards friendly relations with any Turk, let alone one who practices Islam. Yet I can’t help but feel sad that he was the victim of a so-called “honor killing” in which there is no honor for doing so, period.
FYI – The modern Turkish state has always had a “hands-off” approach to religion, be it Greek Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish etc. However, there is a committed number of radical Islamists who wish to return Turkey to the dark ages of Islamofascism. Sadly, this may be the impetus they need to get it going.
Regards,
Peter H.
Was Ahmet Yildiz the victim of Turkey’s first gay honour killing?
I kind of doubt it… I suspect there have been a few.
How do the multiculturalists rationalize these crimes – be it killing allegedly errant daughters or rioting over a cartoon? We’re told, continually, that we must appreciate and embrace other cultures (and that ours is rotten to the core).
How do the multiculturalists rationalize these crimes
The same way they rationalize everything… ignore the real threat and create an imaginary boogeyman. Ignore real Islamist gay-killing, but pretend the “threat” of “fundamentalist Christians” exterminating gays is real. Focusing on an imaginary bogeyman is much less scary; an imaginary bogeyman can’t really hurt you.
Robert, I had the same thought. “Hardly the first.”
Regan killed thousands by ignoring the AIDS Crisis even though Nancy begged him to say and do something. Of course, you’re the kind to bitch about gay murders in another country; yet, you would never go to a Take Back The Night Rally or attend a candlelight vigil because you might have to rub elbows with Liberals. Your callous indifference wont save you when the Religious Right comes for you. You think they respect you but they don’t.
I really pity you guys because you are so delusional and masochistic, cuddling up to the people who would beat you over the head, fire you from your jobs and spit on you.
#7: Hello everyone except Good Riddance. If you’ve read comment #7 above, you know that GR has posted yet another off-the-rails, insane, illogical rant copied word-for-word from the gay victims’ mythology handbook. I’m sure that several of you, like me, would like to post a logical, fact-based, battleaxe of a response to cut GR’s absurd views into mincemeat. However, I’d like to propose that everyone refrain from doing so. GR is perfectly entitled to her opinions and even to post them on this site. However, the fact that she refuses to post rebuttals or even address the facts raised in the responses makes it clear that she is not interested in a real debate–just a pointless game of troll-tag-you’re-it childishness that does nothing to promote conservative ideas or understanding among gay people with differing views. So, I’m done taking GR’s tired, useless, ignorant bait. She’s lost, hopeless and unworthy of anyone’s time.
Sorry, Reagan was a real person. Mr. Barbara Streisand did NOT occupy the WH for 8 years, contrary to what you fantasize. If you bothered, you could find articles like this one that shows you’ve been lied to all your life. Murdock, BTW, supports repealing of the liberal written & signed law of DADT.
Of course you’re the kind to get all excited at news of “Human Rights” Campaign’s latest cocktail party and that Solmonese makes $320K/ year. That qualifies as “rich” don’t it? If Comrade Obama becomes president, will Solmonese get his income redistributed?
You’re also the kind of person who isn’t interested in REAL human rights auses elsewhere in the world if you can’t smear Republicans and trash the United States over it. Same as the “human rights” groups. They could care less about those “filthy brown” Iranian gays arrested and hung. Nor do they care about increasing attacks on gays in Amsterdam, London, Paris etc. And those “dirty Jews” who suffer the same “had it coming anyway”.
Sadly, you’re also the kind of person who goes apeshitspiceygonzo when an ammendment comes up to protect the word marriage. That’s supposedly “homophobic”. However, you gleefully support those who campaign with homophobic bigot America haters, hand you DADT, DOMA, anti-sodomy laws, fire gay outreach coordinators and puts Leah Daughtry on the “Faith in Action” committee.
Not to mention the fact that you have no frickin’ idea what democrats and “human rights” groups have done for you lately. You just drink the Kool-Aid like the mindless little lemming that you are. You’ll tolerate the REAL homophobic bigotry and human rights abuses then, on cue, you’ll squeal like Ned Beatty about how Republicans are the bigot homophobes.
Not to mention the fact that in all our experiences, the gay liberals are far more intolerant than Republicans.
Sorry to piss in your Cheerios, but the REAL homophobes are the liberals themselves. Why should we vote for them, again?
Oh, and for the love of God, don’t just say “no they’re not” and let that suffice as an answer. If I’m lying, prove it.
Actually Pinky Bear the only people who woul express hatred toward me… tell lies about me.. and/or threaten my employment security are Leftists.
i should know since all of them have indeed occured.
You fucking morons on the Left are so out of touch wth the reality of who you are and just how insanely vindictive and hate-driven you are.
Good advice, Sean. You would think after it was demonstrated that Good Riddance and Fred Phelps were strange bedfellows, he’d have enough shame to lay low. Alas, leftists have no sense of shame. So, I’ll leave the discussion of the complete stupidity of ‘Take Back the Night’ marches for another time.
I would pose the question though, when have Christian fundamentalists killed any gay people in America anyway? Matt Shepard was killed by two tweakers he left a bar to have a three-way with. The men who murdered Gwen Araujo were thugs, at least one of whom had a mental disorder. None were Christian fundamentalists.
Unlike ‘Good Riddance,’ I’m not going to spit on the graves of these victims. The people who killed them were sent to prison, deservedly so. And their families did nothing to deserve the pain of their loss. The point is, they were murdered by thugs, not devout Christians.
#8 – Sean, I second your emotion. Don’t feed the libtards.
Regards,
Peter H.
#9 – Vince, I hear you. Same with me. Which is why I never, NEVER trust a libtard.
Regards,
Peter H.
Regan killed thousands by ignoring the AIDS Crisis even though Nancy begged him to say and do something.
The amusing part of rants like Pinky Bear’s is how, right about the time that “Regan” was supposedly killing all these gays, people like Randy Shilts who were calling for safe sex, responsibility, and the closure of San Francisco bathhouses were being called “gay Uncle Toms” and spat upon by the more “enlightened” gays like Pinky Bear.
In the cold gray light of reality, promiscuous unprotected sex and needle-sharing, as practiced by gays like Pinky Bear and his fellow leftists, is what killed thousands of people. What’s worse is that the denial of that by Pinky Bear and his fellow gay leftists that promiscuous sex spreads HIV is why, in contrast to all other high-risk groups, the rate of HIV infections is rising among gays.
In short, Pinky Bear blames “Regan” because Pinky Bear won’t take responsibility for the people his actions, his behaviors, and his support of gay promiscuity infected, sickened, and killed. Disgusting.
Regan killed thousands by ignoring the AIDS Crisis even though Nancy begged him to say and do something.
The amusing part of rants like Pinky Bear’s is how, right about the time that “Regan” was supposedly killing all these gays, people like Randy Shilts who were calling for safe sex, responsibility, and the closure of San Francisco bathhouses were being called “gay Uncle Toms” and spat upon by the more “enlightened” gays like Pinky Bear.
In the cold gray light of reality, promiscuous unprotected sex and needle-sharing, as practiced by gays like Pinky Bear and his fellow leftists, is what killed thousands of people. What’s worse is that the denial of that by Pinky Bear and his fellow gay leftists that promiscuous sex spreads HIV is why, in contrast to all other high-risk groups, the rate of HIV infections is rising among gays.
In short, Pinky Bear blames “Regan” because Pinky Bear won’t take responsibility for the people his actions, his behaviors, and his support of gay promiscuity infected, sickened, and killed.
Just discovered this site. Good job, folks. It is always exciting to find proof that this truly is a great country when protected classes let the issues go and instead think about what’s best for the country as a whole. Being raised in Northern California, San Francisco specifically, I was an issues liberal for a while in my 20s. Watching the political circus there cured the affliction. I look forward to visiting this blog going forward.
The saying used to be “live free or die”. There was also the popular conservative cry in the 50s of “better dead than red” Seems that as far as the posters here are concerned it’s “at least you’re not being killed”
Dear Vince,
You should see a psychiatrist for that persecution complex you have. I believe it is called paranoia.
Just when you think Kevin couldn’t come up with anything more insipid…
And the really, really sad part is, I don’t think he thought that up on his own. I think someone just slightly less stupid posted it on some left-wing blog, and Kevin actually mistook it for something clever.
You almost gotta feel sorry for people sometimes.
no Kevin,
It’s thank the Divine we live in a country where you’re not killed because of your choice of bedmate, I’m not killed because I’m a child of Abraham (albiet a distant one) and my mom’s not killed for being an uppity educated woman.
Then again, if we’ve a supreme court that relies on international law (Gingsburg) or international consensus (Souter) I won’t make any bets on it lasting.
You DO know that Mr. Barbara Streisand was never POTUS, right? Also, what color is the sky in your world? You seem to be suffering from something psychiatrists don’t have a name for yet.
14: You should be a little more specific; I think you mean that there is not state sponsored / state sponsored religion that kills gays, but to say that no one has ever been killed for being gay, then you’re wrong: Lawrence King, Matthew Shepard, Scott Amedure, to name some.
13: Yes, I did think up that one on my own and being that you don’t know me personally, then you’re making a bit of a bit of stretch to judge my intelligence – that of course coming from someone who regularly and enthusiastically resorts to name calling when he can’t make a reasonable, intelligent response.
Pinky: not that you’ll read it but here’s some perspective on Reagan and AIDS:
http://www.indegayforum.org/news/show/26671.html
But come on, now… Reagan didn’t “kill thousands”. People were killed by the disease – and some of these people knew that promiscuous, unprotected sex was a risk.
The IGF article points out that $500 million had been spent by 1985. Blaming Reagan for these deaths is like blaming him for traffic fatalities or deaths from heart attacks and cancer.
I don’t go to “Take Back The Night” rallies or candlelight vigils because they’re pointless.
There have been innumerable vigils to “do something” about inner-city crime, AIDS, war, disease, pestilence, and humidity. Nothing is accomplished.
Reducing violent crime would involve building more prison space and putting a lot of people away for a long time (in other words, a concrete message from society saying “no, we will not tolerate xxx”). These are things that liberals reliably oppose.
Kevin is correct that people have been killed for being gay. People have also been killed for being white, black, brown, male, female, rich, poor, young, old, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, cop – you name it. In other words, there are evil people in the world. But liberals are usually the first in line to make sure that wrongdoers aren’t punished (like being an illegal-alien gangbanger in San Francisco).
Kev, some years ago, you posted the claim that Republicans were out to exterminate gay people. I challenged you to produce evidence for this claim. You could not. Nor did you ever admit you were wrong for making that accusation.
Instead of admitting your error, you moved the goalposts and claimed that you meant that the Religious Right wanted to exterminate gay people. First, this was clearly not what you originally said. Second, you presented no evidence to back up that claim either.
If you refuse to debate with honesty, integrity, and intelligence, do not be surprised when people do not treat your insipid babbling as worthy of serious debate. You are not an honest debater, and you are not very bright. The only purpose of even engaging your idiotic talking points is to reveal how truly stupid and detached from reality are the things you believe, and all the left-libs who believe also.
BTW: Was Matt Shepard murdered by Christian Fundamentalists? No, he was murdered by a pair of drug-using thugs he picked up in a bar. Was Scott Amedure? No, he was murdered by a straight guy he deceived and humiliated on national television. Lawrence King? Nope, murdered by a kid raised in a home where drinking, drug use, and violence were common.
Tragic deaths? Certainly. But blaming them on the Christian Right to further an agenda, or to claim equivalence between fundamentalist Mohammedism and fundamentalist Christianity … extremely dishonest.
#19 – And THAT, dear boys and girls, is how you effectively deal with a self-hating American libtard.
Kudos to V da K!
Regards,
Peter H.
#14 – Oh, great. Who woke the bitch up this time? Sheez.
Regards,
Peter H.
V the K,
Now in Kevin’s defense, I think he posts to read his own text, regardless of reality.
This makes him (to the left) a Master debater. 143 more days of this and he gets a free presidential nomination.
#22 – SNORT! 😉
Regards,
Peter H.
Also to go back to the original point. We don’t have a major political/religious party yelling for the execution of such minorities.
Fred Phelps (D) not withstanding
As another Greek-American gay man, I side with Peter Hughes.
However, he wrote
“FYI – The modern Turkish state has always had a “hands-off†approach to religion, be it Greek Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish etc. However, there is a committed number of radical Islamists who wish to return Turkey to the dark ages of Islamofascism. Sadly, this may be the impetus they need to get it going.”
Well, not exactly. the OFFICIAL approach is hands-off. In reality, they bomb and set fire to the Orthodox Christian Patriarchate, killed the sexton and stuffed him in a well (among other murders through the years), disallow clerical garb (in fairness, the Moslem imams cannot theoretically wear clerical garb, either), disallow the use of historically Christian churches, and on and on. The Turkish word for the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is “Rom(e)” and the enclosure is called the “Vatican”. Imagine the Pope being disallowed to go out of his palace in clerical garb.
When I visited Istanbul several years ago, I saw the city garbage trucks dumping refuse in Christian churchyards. Everything was fine until I used my credit card and they saw my Greek last name. Twice I was refused a hotel!!! Several people in my family fled Turkey because of the horrible treatment.
For the Turkish state to be considered admission to the EU without a total revamping of their official “history”, equality, judicial process and general civil rights is unthinkable, yet it will happen, and soon.
Recently I visited England. Straight, rough and tumble guys came forth to tell me that they didn’t understand the anti-gay hatred in America. How could I deal with it, they asked. They told me that homosexuality for women was always legal, but only legalized for men in the last few decades. They proclaimed it unfair as “sexism”. Two very straight, very macho men.
I pray that Matthew Sheppard never be forgotten.
Indeed, I also pray that Ahmet Yildiz’ death also never be forgotten.
We have barbarians in our own land who claim Christ as their Savior, yet continue unceasingly to undermine the hope of equality.
I think anytime one of the leftards tries to make moral equivalence, just challenge them to cite a single incident in the USA where a gay person was murdered by a Christian out of religious conviction, or name a single mainstream church in the USA that advocates violence against gays.
There hasn’t been and there aren’t.
EVIL CHRISTIANS! MURDERING A YOUNG BOY LIKE THAT! RADICAL CHRISTIANITY IS MUCH MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE (imaginary) RADICAL ISLAM!
WAIT!
The murderers where what?
THEY WERE?!?!
Oh, well, then, never mind what I was saying.
Just poking some fun at those who criticize Christians for being bigoted but ignore the crimes of Islamofascists.
Why are they calling this an “honor” crime? This is most likely a hate crime. An honor crime, as far as I know it, involves a spouse- usually the wife- insulting the honor of the husband’s family and thereby incurring punishment. Am I missing something?