Istanbul: Teacher In Istanbul Armenian School Killed

TEACHER IN ISTANBUL ARMENIAN SCHOOL KILLED

11 January 2013

The body of Ýlker Þahin, a teacher at an Armenian school in Ýstanbul
who was found dead in his home, is taken away in an ambulance. (Photo:
ÝHA)

A computer science teacher working for an Armenian school in Ýstanbul’s
Kadýkoy district was killed on Friday.

Ýlker Þahin (40), a computer science teacher at Aramyan Uncuyan
Primary School, was found dead in his home.

Þahin was living alone in the district’s Caferaða neighborhood,
and had not shown up at school since the Orthodox Christmas, which
is celebrated on Jan. 7. Worried about him, his friends broke down
his door and found him dead. His throat had been slit by a knife.

The Ýstanbul Police Department’s homicide bureau determined during
their inspection at the scene of the incident that there were signs
of struggle.

Þahin’s body was taken to the morgue of Goztepe Education and Research
Hospital after an examination by experts and a public prosecutor.

Police have launched an investigation into the incident.

Þahin’s neighbors told the police that they do not think Þahin had
such serious problems with anybody that would lead to his murder. He
was a happy and easygoing man, they said.

Þahin divorced three years ago and has one daughter.

Initial reports also said that the police found bullets in Þahin’s
body.

In the most recent two attacks against Armenians, an 87-year-old
Armenian woman in the Samatya neighborhood of Ýstanbul’s Fatih district
was wounded by a burglar who broke into her apartment and stole her
jewelry along with some other valuable possessions in December. Again
in late December, an 84-year-old Armenian woman was murdered in her
apartment in Samatya. The act is believed to have been a hate crime
because a cross was carved into her chest with a sharp object.