JINHA

 WAN –Thousands flooded the streets of Van in a spontaneous reaction to attempted femicide yesterday afternoon.

A man shot a 27-year-old woman on central Sanat Street, in downtown Van. Within minutes, thousands of citizens flooded the streets, attempting to protect the woman and to disarm the attacker. Riot police attempted to bring the attacker under protection, taking over a workplace to hide him and attacking the gathering crowd.

The AKP, Turkey's ruling party, stands widely accused of emboldening femicides in Turkey through sexist discourse and policies that reduce sentences for perpetrators of violence against women. According to reports from news agency DIHA, the man, Nazım Al, attacked his wife, Necla Al, because she had opened a divorce case against him.

The crowd began to chant the Kurdish slogan "jin, jiyan, azadî" (woman, life, freedom) and a slogan calling for punishment for those who attack women, also widespread during the Özgecan uprisings.

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