Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), on Wednesday rejected a parliamentary motion to investigate the suspicious death of university student Rojin Kabaiş in the eastern province of Van last year, Turkish Minute reported.
The motion was filed by the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).
Kabaiş, 21, was a student at Yüzüncü Yıl University in the eastern province of Van. Her death about a year ago, with her body discovered 18 days after her disappearance on the shore of Lake Van, was initially classified as a suicide, a conclusion her family and women rights activists have long disputed.
The case resurfaced after a new forensic report dated October 10 revealed that DNA samples from two different men had been found on Kabaiş’s body, one on her chest and another inside the vaginal area, raising renewed suspicions of sexual assault.
The report added new details to earlier findings from November 2024, which had concluded that Kabaiş died from drowning but could not determine whether it was accidental, suicidal or due to external interference.
DEM Party lawmaker Öznur Bartın, who introduced the motion, said the initial forensic report had detected DNA from two different men on Kabaiş’s body but did not specify from which parts the samples were taken and concluded that there were “no suspicious findings.” She added that a second report issued nearly a year later clarified that the two male DNA samples had in fact been collected from the chest and vaginal areas.
Bartın questioned why such crucial information was withheld for nearly a year, saying, “Who was being protected, and why was this [evidence] delayed? This obstruction has hindered the investigation and served to cover up Rojin’s suspicious death, a murder.”
During the debate opposition lawmakers accused judicial authorities investigating the case of negligence, with Ayça Taşkent, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), saying that trust in justice was once again shaken due to judicial shortcomings following Rojin’s death.
“The case file was kept from the defense, leading to the perception that Rojin’s death was a suicide, while evidence was hidden, reports were incomplete and the crime scene was poorly examined,” she said, adding that responsibility for her death lies not only with individuals but also with institutions.
While nationalist İYİ (Good) Party MP Mehmet Akalın called the case “a test of conscience for Turkey,” MP Birol Aydın from the New Path parliamentary group, which comprises several small opposition parties, urged the government to resolve the case, saying, “If it’s the police, the law or authority that’s needed — they are all here; this must be settled.”
Adem Yıldırım, a lawmaker from the ruling AKP, argued that the issue could be handled by the existing parliamentary commission on violence against women.
He said that calling “every suspicious female death a murder” was incomplete and that “every suspicious human death” should be treated the same, urging against drawing distinctions between men and women, remarks that provoked heated reactions in the session.
Rector accused of obstructing probe into student’s death
Allegations circulating on social media that Hamdullah Şevli, the rector of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, where Kabaiş was a student, sought to stifle efforts to shed light on the circumstances of her death have fueled renewed public criticism of the university’s administration.
Journalist Ruşen Takva said in a post on X on Wednesday that he and other reporters were barred from entering the university campus while attempting to cover protests calling for justice for Kabaiş, alleging that the order came “at the rector’s instruction.”
Later the same day Takva wrote that the rector “has become an ordinary suspect due to his actions since Rojin Kabaiş’s death and should be immediately suspended for the sake of the investigation.”
Prof. Dr. Veysi Ceri, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, commented on Takva’s tweets, saying he believed the rector “should be dismissed from his post.”
Separately, X user Özcan Bayram claimed that the rector and university secretary-general Cahit Tekin sent two armed men to his home in a car to threaten him and his family in an attempt to silence him over his posts about Kabaiş, writing, “They threatened me and my children with death.”
He later shared another post showing what he said was a bullet left on his car to intimidate him.
Turkish-Kurdish singer and filmmaker Mahsun Kırmızıgül also weighed in on X, criticizing the AKP and MHP’s decision to block the inquiry and questioning the lack of accountability.
Why?” he asked. “Aren’t you the representatives of the people? Don’t you claim to serve them? Remaining silent and avoiding the truth is disgraceful. What more are you waiting for in order for justice to be served?”
Violence against women is a chronic problem in Turkey. According to the We Will Stop Femicide Platform (KCDP), a leading women’s rights organization in Turkey, at least 394 women were killed by men in Turkey in 2024. Twenty women were killed by men in September alone while 22 others died under suspicious circumstances, according to the same group.