Turkey in uproar over murdered girl

Turkey has seen an uproar during the weekend over the murder of a 20-year-old university student killed and burned in the southern city of Mersin last week on her way home.

The burned body of the female student Ozgecan Aslan was discovered on Feb. 13 in a riverbed in the Tarsus district of Mersin. Three suspects were detained for stabbing the girl to death and later burning her remains.

The murder has enraged the country as people from all walks of life have expressed their anger and called for justice.

Turkish women are going to wear black across the country on Monday in a nationwide protest and demand the government to stop violence against women in the country.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday that the government will do more to defend the rights of women, and that women should stand up for Ozgecan Aslan as well as for all women subject to violence in Turkey.

He also announced that the government is planning to open a youth facility in the city, and name it "Ozgecan Aslan" to honor the murdered girl.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan called Aslan's family to offer condolences and condemned the murder.

According to Daily Sabah, hundreds of people on Saturday gathered in Taksim, the center of Istanbul in a protest to raise social awareness about the issue of femicide in Turkey.

On Wednesday, Aslan's family reported to the police that their daughter was missing. A day later, a driver of a suspicious minibus, his father and a friend were detained when the victim's father found her daughter's hat on the bus.

According to the interrogation, the driver tried to rape the girl, while she fought him off with pepper spray, but was stabbed to death later. Endit