MixTogether & Friends

The trial of Mehmet Goren, Ali Goren and Cuma Goren for the murder of Tulay Goren is due to end next week.

Tulay Goren

 

The details of the case are horriffic.

A girl who disappeared a decade ago was murdered by her father in a so-called “honour killing”, a court has heard.
Tulay Goren, 15, a Kurdish Turk from Woodford Green, north London, vanished in 1999 and her body has never been found, the Old Bailey was told.
Her father Mehmet Goren, 49, and uncles Cuma Goren, 42, and Ali Goren, 55, both from Walthamstow, all deny murder.
The men also deny conspiracy to murder her boyfriend, Halil Unal, 30, between May 1998 and February 1999.
Tulay was last seen alive on 7 January 1999 with her father Mehmet Goren, of Navestock Crescent, Woodford Green, who is alleged to have killed her later that day.
Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said Tulay was killed “to restore the so-called honour” of the family, who originate from Turkey.

The distinguishing feature of this ‘honour’ killing trial is the testimony of Tulay Goren‘s own mother, Hanim Goren appearing for the prosecution.

The new account of events given by the mother of a girl said to have been murdered in an honour killing, including the disappearance of knives and bin-bags, was outlined by the prosecution at the Old Bailey yesterday…

…Her mother, Hanim Goren, has now said that later that day she was told to leave the family house with her younger children and stay at the home of her husband’s brother Cuma Goren, 42, in Walthamstow, east London. The eldest brother, Ali, 55, who lives in Ilford, was working in Cumbria at the time.
When she returned next evening Tulay was gone and most of her clothes had vanished, said Jonathan Laidlaw, QC, for the prosecution.
Mrs Goren noticed that two kitchen knives and an almost full roll of bin-bags were missing and that her husband had washed his own shirt for the first time in their marriage, it is alleged.
When she woke the next morning she realised that weeds and rubbish had been removed from the back garden and that flower beds had been dug over, the court was told.
Her husband claimed that he had turned over the soil with a meat cleaver and that he planned to plant vegetables for the first time in the five years that they had lived at the house, it is alleged. Five days later Mrs Goren was again told to stay with Cuma Goren. When she returned the following day she found her husband asleep on the floor. The back garden had been dug up again, the court heard.

Despite ludicrous claims by the defence that Tulay ran off to become a PKK guerilla it seems likely that this case will result in a conviction.

The age of the case (dating back to 1999) suggests the 3 men were prosecuted only when sufficient evidence was available to secure a conviction.

If a conviction is secured, it will be a huge embarrasment to the government who have recently cut funding to IKWRO and Karma Nirvana. Full details of the case will be carried by all major papers, re-igniting the public’s concern about honour crimes.

Coming so soon after the murder of Geeta Aulakh, a conviction for Tulay Goren‘s murder must cause a re-think in our approach to honour crimes.