An animal rights advocate who was targeted on social media for opposing the removal of stray dogs from the streets was found dead after a suspicious fire engulfed her home in Ankara, raising concerns of possible foul play, Turkish Minute reported on Thursday.
Ülker Güleryüz, an 81-year-old woman known for her care of stray animals, died on Wednesday in a suspicious fire at her home, which lacked electricity, heating devices and a stove.
The fire that claimed the life of Güleryüz broke out after she opposed the Altındağ Municipality team, run by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), collecting stray dogs in Ankara. The footage of her objection spread on social media, leading users who supported the removal of stray animals to target her.
İzzet Fazlaca, Güleryüz’s neighbor and landlord, and Tuğba Gürsoy, head of the Ankara Bar Association’s animal rights committee, told ANKA their reasons for suspecting that the elderly woman’s death was murder, while authorities investigate possible arson along with accidental causes.
Fazlaca grounds his suspicions that the fire was started from the outside on the fact that it began at the entrance and then spread inward. The homeowner, who stated that the elderly woman did not use a stove or electric heater, emphasized that if the fire had started inside, the textiles in the house would have been the first to catch fire.
Gürsoy also bases her suspicions of murder on the fact that the fire followed death threats Güleryüz had received on social media and also argues that the fire couldn’t have started inside the house due to the lack of electrical connections and heating devices.
“We watched on social media as Altındağ Municipality employees took Necla’s dog from her, making her cry. Later, we saw posts celebrating the municipality’s actions against Necla and her animals, with messages wishing her torture, death and even wishing she would burn to death. … We showed these threatening messages to the prosecutor, but unfortunately, the biggest problem in our country is the ineffective conduct of investigations,” Gürsoy said.
She added that a formal request had been filed for the incident to be considered murder; however, no response has yet been received.
“Many people here also saw that only the frames and doors [of the house] were burned. It is clearly a murder and we want it to be investigated as such. That’s why we will not give up,” she vowed.
Despite public outrage, the Turkish parliament on July 30 approved the law aimed at removing millions of stray dogs from the streets, citing public safety concerns. The law mandates that stray dogs be collected, vaccinated, neutered or spayed and then placed in shelters for adoption. Dogs that are ill, in pain or deemed a health risk to humans can be euthanized. This is a departure from the previous policy to sterilize, vaccinate, treat and release stray animals.
Animal rights activists and opposition parties objected to the law, fearing that it will result in mass culling or force dogs into overcrowded and poorly managed shelters.
Following the approval of the law, many cases have been reported across the country involving the mass killing of stray dogs, which confirmed the fears of the law’s opponents.
Despite the support of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the law faced significant opposition, with the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) filing a petition with the Constitutional Court to have the legislation repealed.
A petition launched to secure the withdrawal of the controversial law became the most popular Change.org campaign in Turkey in 2024, collecting 448,954 signatures.
