A number of media outlets have reported yet another murder of a transgender woman in Turkey, this time in the tourist town of Kusadasi. According to reports, Dora Özer was brutally murdered in a knife attack.
Violent attacks on transgender women are the most tragic component of Turkey’s sorry record on LGBTI rights. As Amnesty’s 2013 Annual Report notes:
The government rejected civil society calls to include sexual orientation and gender identity as prohibited discrimination grounds in the new Constitution. No progress was made in adopting comprehensive non-discrimination legislation. LGBTI rights groups continued to report suspected hate murders motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including the murders of five transgender women.