What if you were receiving the most vile, ruthless text messages every day?
And you had no idea who they were coming from.
How do they know you? Who could they be?
Are they watching you right now? Unknown number, the high school catfish tells the story of a high school girl in Michigan who was cyber bullied for more than a year.
One phone number kept showing up and the suspect ultimately shocked everyone.
Unknown Number, The High School Catfish launches on August 29th, only on Netflix.
Appliances and home systems all tend to break down at some point, but with an American Home Shield warranty, you're covered.
When your fridge is on a lifeline and your faucet won't stop leaking, AHS will fix or replace covered parts of your home systems and appliances, no matter how old they are.
Not to mention, as a benefit with select plans, you can video chat with your live repair experts to help assess or fix the issue on the spot.
American Home Shield. Don't worry. Be warranty.
Get 20% off any plan at AHS.com slash rotten.
See ahs.com slash contracts for coverage details, including service fees, limitations, and exclusions.
Badabing, badaboo. Nobody likes to think of it as a statistical problem. but it is, I mean, statistically speaking, if you have a daughter by the time that she reaches 19 years old, you're going to have approximately 187 phone calls that make your heart rate spike to 120 beats per minute or above.
Typically your heart should beat between 60 to 100 beats per minute, 120 to 150 is a full-blown panic attack. chest pain, shortness of breath, that level of breathing.
187 calls statistically. And even that can be broken down.
First five years, you're going to have 23 to 28 calls, high chances of unintentional injuries, falling, eating something that they shouldn't be eating, eating high fevers now you're down to 159 calls ages 6 to 10 45 to 52 calls Playground accidents, head lice, school nurse calls you, high fever, alarming.
Those are common. Now you have 107 panic inducing calls left.
If you're lucky, then they become a teenager. sports injuries, car accidents, mental health crises, experimentation with alcohol and other drugs, And if you really want to get systematic with this, you can even narrow this down to how much panic each call will bring you by the way that it starts.
Hi, is this Stephanie's mom? That's usually gonna be a false alarm or, mid panic, fever, lice, maybe pink eye, calls from other parents to tell you that your kid is absolutely asinine, like that type of stuff.
But if it starts, don't panic. But that's probably a white knuckle event.
They broke their leg. Something bad is happening, but they're alive.
Now, when a call starts with your full legal name or your child's full legal name, surgery, police officer, those are like the existential dread category of calls.
But there is one tier above it. Most parents don't even get these calls, which is when your daughter's stalker calls.
Iqbal's mother has been trying to get in contact with Iqbal for probably over an hour at this point And all moms will tell you the same thing.
This is unlike her, this is unlike her. But it really is unlike Iqbal. they have a very unique situation where the whole family basically keeps an eye out for Iqbal's whereabouts at all times because she's had a stalker for the past few years, just relentlessly following her around.
Iqbal's phone is ringing and it's ringing and it's going to ring. until it gets to voicemail.
Again, that's what Iqbal's mom is thinking because that's what's been happening for the past 30 minutes.
8Ball's mom is about to hang up when the ringing stops and there's a noise on the other line.
Hello? Hello? Iqbal? Instead of her daughter, Iqbal's mom hears a man's voice. it's her daughter's stalker on the other end and he just says 15 words and then he hangs up Don't worry.
Your daughter is in good hands. The girl is sleeping in peace now.
Panic is probably a very calm way to describe the state of Iqbal's mother in this situation.
Frantically calling back, calling back, calling back.
Finally, another response. This time it's a completely different man, and he's very polite, normal sounding even.
Hi, um... I don't know who this is, but oh, this is your daughter's phone.
I guess your daughter dropped her phone on the ground.
I just found it on the ground. I was just walking by.
I heard the ringing in the grass. Where?
The man on the phone gives her the address and offers to stay with the phone until Iqbal's mom can come and grab it. which it's not even the phone that she's worried about.
It's Iqbal. Her and her husband rush to the address given by the man.
It's a pretty well-known area. It's called the ramparts.
We're gonna call it the walls, but... We'll get more into it later.
It's a historical structure. They're all over the city of Istanbul in Turkey.
But it looks like if you were to see four stories of weathered almost castle-like walls some of the bricks have holes in them they're getting irregularly shaped because of the wind and earthquakes. the structures aren't necessarily ornate or traditionally beautiful. but they were built to stop armies from invading the city.
So they look… They look like fortresses and they're stunning.
Some of the ramparts have been restored.
Some of them are tourist spots. a lot of them have just been kind of abandoned.
So a lot of teenagers would go in there and graffiti the walls they'll do drugs in there, they'll drink, they'll hang out in there because it's like You have those city parts where the kids take over.
That's where she's headed. But Iqbal is not one to be one of those teenagers.
October 4, 2024. The first video goes viral in Turkey.
In the video, you see Iqbal's mother, and when the video first starts circulating, I mean, nobody knew who this woman was or that she's Iqbal's mother or who Iqbal is either.
But you see Iqbal's mother standing at the bottom of the ramparts.
And she's screaming, sobbing while there is a whole crowd around her.
And it just looks like nobody... knows how to react because as Iqbal's mom was searching for Iqbal, Iqbal's severed head is thrown from the top of the rampart walls. and the head lands near Iqbal's mom's feet. and it's Iqbal.
They look up and you can kind of see the rest of Iqbal's body dismembered and stacked on top of the walls almost like it's on display like butchered meat and initially, this video goes viral in Turkey completely uncensored eventually the censored ones start spreading and blowing up but all of Turkey is watching and reacting to the video, even asking the other netizens Did you know another teenage girl in the same town was just killed a few hours earlier?
What's happening? What's going on? What's happening today?
Are they connected? Are they not connected?
There is a 19-year-old girl that was murdered in a bedroom.
A few hours later, Iqbal is murdered. And then another 19-year-old.
And this is within hours of each other, not even.
Maybe like 30-40 minutes of each other. then another 19 year old is killed because soon after that video of Iqbal's mom and Iqbal's head goes viral at the same place another video is taken.
Except the focus is no longer on Iqbal's mom, but it's at the ramparts, the walls.
And at the very top you see a He looks like a teenage boy, 18, 19, just by looking at the video. and he's standing on the ledge of the stone walls, and you can hear Iqbal's mother still screaming.
So it's like you're kind of putting two and two together with these two videos.
OK, this is happening at the same place at the same time.
What's going on? We know Iqbal's mother is there because we can hear her screaming and now this is a new video and you see this little boy standing there watching everyone before he very unceremoniously steps forward. and the crowd starts swarming where his body lands.
This is the second video that goes viral in Turkey from October 4th.
I mean, expectedly social media in Turkey starts freaking out. within four to five hours in Istanbul, in Turkey, the same city, three 19-year-olds end up dead.
Aisha Noor, a 19 year old girl, had her throat slit.
Iqbal, a 19-year-old girl was murdered and had her head severed.
And Semih, a 19-year-old boy, has fallen from the top of the walls.
October 4th, 2024, three 19-year-olds die in the same city and they are all connected.
And the place where people start getting answers is not the police.
It's not the government. It's Discord. Until Discord goes dark.
¶¶ We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the Turkish Philanthropy Gender Equality Fund, with the mission to end gender-based violence in child marriage through actions like like but not limited to closing the educational gap, increasing economic opportunities, and enhancing women's voices.
This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team, and we'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support.
As always, full show notes are available at rotmingopodcast.com.
Today's case involves... mentions of physical and gender-based violence as well as dismemberment It's a little more graphic in nature than some of the recent cases we've covered, so please don't hesitate to take a break if you need.
Today's case also takes place in Turkey.
We had amazing help from professional Turkish translators to research alongside this case however i am personally not a native speaker myself so there is a possibility that i may mistranslate or even mispronounce I'm horrendous at pronunciation mispronounce things unintentionally Please let me know in the comments if you're from Turkey and if there's anything that has been misinterpreted or mispronounced or miscommunicated.
So with that being said, let's get started.
There is a serial killer that people refer to as the ragdoll killer.
It's because the killer will take the bodies of their victims.
They will take six different victims to be exact. and pick and choose certain pieces of each body to create a whole new body. sew it together like human centipede, like a rag doll.
You can clearly tell that not all the body parts look like even one gender or even one race.
It's a very jolting Interestingly enough, humans have actually evolved to be repulsed by things like this.
This is our actual killer or? Well, you'll see.
They've been repulsed. We've been evolving to be repulsed by body violation and contamination.
That's the psychological explanation. It's body horror with the use of uncanny valley because The ragdoll creation looks human enough, So we recognize it, but then we realize how wrong it is.
And that is the whole premise of the novel Ragdoll by Daniel Cole. and the main lead detective is trying to catch the ragdoll killer and there's like this whole cat and mouse thriller.
It's a spectacular book by all means that makes you think about morality and justice.
One quote from the book reads, there are no good people, there are just those who haven't been pushed far enough yet and those who have.
But one of the most famous lines from Ragdoll by Daniel Cole reads, tell me, if you're the devil.
What am I? probably not the best book for a 19 year old that's been hospitalized five times in the past year for having very dark to be reading intently, to be obsessed with this novel.
The hospital discharge notes for this 19 year old read specifically must be kept under surveillance by a relative at all times.
So it's probably not the best, but he's obsessed.
And I was on Reddit and a lot of people, they were talking about how they have stalkers.
And they're talking about the little things that you have to do to avoid being stalked.
It's not even like… Just go to the police station and file a police report.
One netizen says, It feels like you have to become a whole new person just to get away from someone.
It's like your life is being stolen from you.
Yeah, the legal way. sometimes victims have to change their full legal name or use aliases in real life but also it's like the smaller things nobody really talks about you have to change your style completely All the clothes that you love and that you feel the most comfortable in, now you gotta get new clothes.
It's financially draining to purchase new clothes, new accessories, new hats. not even because you want to, but because your stalker basically knows your entire wardrobe and it makes it that much easier to spot you.
Or you have to start wearing wigs. 19-year-old Iqbal just completely cuts her hair.
She... always had long hair, now she has short hair because it makes her less recognizable for her stalker that she hasn't even seen. in the past one and a half years.
Well, she hasn't seen him, but he's seen her.
She first realized that she had a stalker issue in high school And for the next five years, his obsession just keeps getting more intense.
But she hasn't seen him in the past one and a half years.
By this point, she's already changed schools, cut her hair, barely goes outside without someone with her. is selective about what she shares online.
She's doing everything. And this guy is so relentless.
He's so relentless. He reads books. like the law of love and the law of violence, the psychology of persuasion, training of the will.
The lessons he's taking from these books, probably the last thing he should be doing.
They're really good books and. I think most people would gain a lot from reading these books, but if You're a stalker, the way he's interpreting these lessons, it's not gonna be the way a normal person does. such as there's a line from the law of love and the law of violence.
All violence consists in some people. forcing others under threat of suffering or death to do what they do not want to do.
It's almost like it's an innate human thing to do that.
The psychology of persuasion, People seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value.
A strong threat may motivate immediate compliance, but it is unlikely to produce long-term commitment.
When our freedom to have something is limited, the item becomes less available and we experience an increased desire for it.
It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end, which I believe the author is quoting Da Vinci with the last one. but he takes all of this and he's like, this is good.
So what I'm gonna do with this information is I'm gonna break into Iqbal's house.
So he takes all of that into consideration and then breaks into Iqbal's room. torments her relentlessly until finally his mom, the stalker's mom, calls Iqbal. who tells Iqbal and her family, my son is in a relationship now.
He has a new girlfriend and they're very happy so he will no longer bother your daughter anymore.
The stalker gets on the phone. I promise Iqbal's mother, I will leave your daughter Iqbal alone now because I have a lover now.
So does that mean after five years, is this the end of the stocking?
That's what Iqbal is thinking. until she gets sent a video and it's of her stalker.
He's wearing a black semi-turtle neck under another long black shirt.
He's got curly black hair and he's almost sitting in a chair with his hands clasped like he's praying.
It just looks based off of his energy, his posture.
It looks more like a video application for a job.
He's in his room, the walls are yellow, there's pictures taped up against the walls, and he seems calm. and he's just staring into the camera iqbal i wanted to say goodbye to you in private i'm finally dying I apologize for what you have experienced because of me.
You will not have to be afraid or worried.
I hope you live a normal life and die beautifully.
But there is something I have to tell you.
That day that you saw me, I was waiting for you.
I came there because I was going to kill you.
I wanted to take a life when I leave this life, and it was more valuable for me if that person would have been you. cutting your heart out, gouging out your eyes.
You already know the things that I wanted to do, but I gave up.
If I kill you, I will have created my own hell. you will not leave me alone on the other side so i will go alone without killing you or killing anyone Was it like a text, an email?
Yeah, just sent to her, this video. Sent to her and she saw it?
Yes. It's likely that she also reported this to the police.
As he's talking, he's putting his palms together like a prayer. oddly like a businessman.
Sometimes he'll intertwine his fingers. Other times he'll put both of them just on his lap.
Then he starts using his right hand to talk.
It's weird because normal people don't really talk like this unless you're in a bored setting.
Did you see the actual video? Yeah. Unless you're naturally a great...
Orator or you're giving some sort of speech.
These are not really regular mannerisms in a conversation, let alone sending a video to someone that you're stalking.
It just... It feels unnatural. It's the way politicians give speeches.
Imagine facetiming someone and they are They have the mannerisms of a politician at a campaign rally.
It's weird. It's naturally going to feel weird.
The only time you see him look even a little nervous, at one point his right leg is shaking but he stops himself.
Even though he's saying, hey, nothing's going to happen to you.
I changed my mind. His energy throughout the video clearly doesn't say that.
He's saying, I was gonna kill you and scoop out your eyeballs, but I decided... not to.
However, I am sending you this video so you know that that almost happened to you.
I almost did that to you. If you rewatch the video, which I'm sure Iqbal and her family did multiple times, you can hear a song playing in the background of the video And it's reportedly Where Is My Mind, which is famously associated with the movie Fight Club, which has this quote that a lot of guys on the internet tend to love. it's a very strange quote that we're going to get into, but it's like, I,
If all men, a lot of men are raised by women, I'm starting to think another woman is the last thing we need.
Wow. 19-year-old Sammy Chelek is a butcher.
He's also a stalker in his free time, but his main occupation is that of a butcher. and he spends a lot of time processing meat, which it seems like he works as a retail butcher shop. he still has the likelihood of coming home with stained fingernails some butchers report that your cuticles will develop a strange color because of all the blood that seeps in sometimes they have these moments where they'll look down at the floor, even in like a retail butcher shop.
You just see lots of blood and it feels like they're in the middle of some sort of horror movie.
It's just weird. because you're not used to seeing the visual of pools of blood on the floor.
If you think too hard about it, it starts feeling unsettling.
And it's interesting because every butcher has a different but very unique way that they prefer doing things.
Something that's easier on the wrist. Some people have certain knives that they like, certain cuts that they like to do.
But the thing with Semichelic is that he liked his butcher knives a little too much.
It was starting to get weird. His parents would walk into his bedroom and he's got his butcher knives just in there like his prized possession.
He doesn't leave it by the door because he only brings it to and from work.
It's not like he... does anything at home with meat he doesn't leave it near the kitchen because it's just an odd thing to have in your room but even if you say it's the easiest way, you just walk into your room, you throw it onto the dresser, that's fine.
But it's the fact that if anyone tries to touch the knife, he gets so territorial angry. i mean maybe that's why semi's dad feels compelled to walk into his room and just like look around Or maybe it's the fact that anytime someone in the family comes or even breathes, in the hallway near his bedroom door, he freaks out, slams his computer shut as if he's hiding some proprietary code in there.
It's so weird. Semmy is just not a normal kid.
Semmy's dad will later say, I entered Sami's room and I saw devil-like pencil paintings and sketches that just, it scared me.
It's dark human psychology that he's drawn and then hung up on the walls.
When I asked him what these were, why he's drawing these types of things, He just responds, you don't get it.
You'll never understand our way of thinking is just different.
Some say the body parts that he would draw would be arranged to outline what would be the seal of Lucifer.
It's like the logo of Lucifer, if you will. and it looked like the body parts were rearranged to have that outline.
And then one year later, Semichalik is dead.
It feels like every time I go online and buy a new outfit or have a new occasion to shop for, I find myself in the dark depths of the review sections.
I'm scrolling through every photo, every measurement, and the worst is when there are no reviews yet.
Be the first one. With Stitch Fix, I can avoid the hassle of online shopping.
Here's how Stitch Fix works. Take a quick style quiz, share your size, style and budget and get matched with a real like a real person, a stylist who gets your vibe, Your stylist will send you pieces that match your size, style, and everything's in your budget.
There is no guesswork, no stress. It's just like the cutest pieces.
When your curated Stitch Fix box shows up at your door, you can take your sweet time trying everything on in your own space And here's the best part.
I actually love trying it on with the clothes that I already have so that I can make sure that I have perfect outfits before I commit.
Shipping and returns are always free and there's no subscription required.
Get started today at stitchfix.com slash rotten to get $20 off your first order and they'll waive your styling fee.
That's stitchfix.com slash rotten. What if you were receiving the most vile, ruthless text messages every day?
And you had no idea who they were coming from.
How do they know you? Who could they be?
Are they watching you right now? Unknown number.
The High School Catfish tells the story of a high school girl in Michigan who was cyber bullied for more than a year.
One phone number kept showing up, and the suspect ultimately shocked everyone.
Unknown Number, The High School Catfish launches on August 29th, only on Netflix.
Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless.
And if you haven't made the switch yet, Here are 15 reasons why you should.
One, it's $15 a month. Two, seriously, it's $15 a month.
Three, no big contracts. Four, I use it.
Five, my mom uses it. Are you playing me off?
That's what's happening, right? Okay, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.
Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan.
$15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only.
Then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra.
Thank you. October 4th, 2024, a new tweet starts going viral.
By this point, two videos have already made their rounds. one of Iqbal's mother crying out while her deceased daughter's severed head is on the floor next to her. and another of Semichalik falling off the walls.
The height, like I said, is like a four story tall building roof.
And there's now this new tweet Oh, so the person jumped up the building was the stalker.
Yes. And now there's this new tweet and it's just a picture with the caption.
It reads, The latest version of this asshole, semi-chelic.
And it's just a picture of semi-chelic attached.
It's a weird photo, but I guess... Semi is weird.
It looks like he's laying on the grass on his back.
It looks like he was taking a selfie. kind of picnicking, he's wearing a black tank top.
There are wires around his neck and chin.
Like if you were to just, leave your headphones jumbled in and then just put one ear in.
That's kind of what it looks like and there's just a jumble of headphone wires.
He has a small scratch on his chin and his mouth is slightly agape like he's taking a nap. on the grass in central park but he's not napping of course because he's dead This is a picture of him circulating after he jumped.
And someone took a picture and said, this is the newest version of the asshole semi-chelic.
One netizen comments, he opened his mouth you guys should piss in it.
Those are the three things that go viral on October 4th, 2024.
And now everyone is confused because what the hell happened?
Why are there three dead teenagers in the city of Istanbul within, and they're all connected within like an hour or two of each other.
The morning of October 4th, 2024, Semichalik invites his girlfriend Aishanor over.
Aisha Noor is another 19-year-old. Semi is the 19-year-old butcher.
His girlfriend is Aishanor, but he's stalking 19-year-old Iqbal.
Hmm. Aisha Noor comes over for breakfast.
His parents are not home. Somebody had already gone to the bakery to pick up breakfast and bread.
It appears by some accounts that their breakfast was a variation of... of fresh tomatoes with bread, white cheese, and olives.
And one of Semih's neighbors ends up at the same bakery that morning semi apparently turns to him and just asks him, do my clothes look okay?
This is such an odd thing to say because this kid barely talks to any of his neighbors. ever but now he suddenly wants to know if his shirt looks dazzling like what do you want me to say The neighbor more or less gives a very generic response of like, sure, you look great.
Semih grabs his breakfast, brings it back to his house for Aishanur, and it's a Friday, so it's kind of the weekend atmosphere.
Around 11 a.m., both of Semih's parents video call him.
There was Semih's sister at her university.
It's brief. There's absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
He's just like, I'm home with Aishanur. Have fun.
Until around 1pm, where out of nowhere, Semi just slits his girlfriend Aishanor's throat in bed.
Aishanora is later found in Sami's bed. Laying on her back, she's clothed. her black t-shirt is slightly risen so you see a sliver of her torso but the rest of her body is covered in a black blanket He slid her throat.
He did not... It doesn't seem particularly like a passionate crime.
Clearly it is, but he didn't stab her repeatedly, he didn't drag on the killing to inflict the most pain and torture.
There are some reports in English that state that he ripped out her tongue. cut out her tongue.
My Turkish researchers say it's unclear if that's true.
It's unclear, not because they're not good at their job, it's unclear because there's a whole media ban later, They say it's unclear, but they don't think that that's what happened.
Other reports saying he just slid her throat so hard he nearly severed her head.
But again, the Turkish reports don't say that.
But please let me know. There's so many confusing elements to this, but we'll get into all of that in a second.
Regardless, Aishanor's body is found from... what most reports read in a way that is kind of a stark contrast to his next murder.
And I don't say that as a way to defend this guy, but rather it's intriguing by the reasoning.
After killing Aishinor, his girlfriend, in his bed, he calls Iqbal, the girl he's been stalking for five years, Do we know how long he's been with the girlfriend?
No. But I mean, because Aishanor's parents later will say, I don't even know this kid.
I didn't even know my daughter was dating this kid.
I didn't even know this kid existed. Wow, okay.
He calls Iqbal, the girl that he's been stalking for years, tells her to meet him at the walls.
And if she doesn't, he's going to kill her entirely. entire family she shows up at the walls now to give you context like i said the walls are historically built to ward off enemies They're still around the city and a lot of them will… The ones that are near really pretty areas will attract a lot of tourists.
So those are kept under high maintenance.
There's a lot of guards, there's security, there's all these functions.
But then some of the other ones, Either they're half ruined from the earthquakes or there have been attempts to restore them, but they aren't. really working, those are just kind of left for the locals with signs that say, hey, stay away, beware, this is government property, don't come in here. but a lot of people do, teenagers seem to love climbing up these walls.
And in this specific one, which we're just gonna call the walls, it has this roof at the top.
It's almost like an opening where you have these half lookout windows.
It's like a little tower, like one of those princess towers that you look out of.
So at the top, it's like a roof, but then you have these pillars of bricks and then you just have these wide openings.
With no railings Got it And then if you're further into the rooftop area, no one's going to see you from down. from the street level.
But if you are standing close to the ledge, people are gonna see you.
And you can actually stand on the ledge.
There's no railing. There's nothing. That's why people are not allowed to go up.
It looks kind of scary. There's a TikTok video of someone going up to that exact, the ramparts and filming downward.
It's terrifying. It looks taller. It feels taller than four stories.
That is where Sami forces Iqbal to meet him.
There is CCTV footage of them heading to the walls.
You can barely see them together, but you can see Semi and His demeanor is so calm.
It's very casual, like his deceased girlfriend is not laying in his bed. while he meets with the girl that he's been stalking for years.
If we were to walk past him on the street, That would be the last assumption that I make about this guy.
They head to the top of the walls. There are some reports that state the entire time Iqbal was resisting, at one point she screamed for help, but nobody listened and they let the two teenagers be.
We know now that at the very top of the walls, because you can't really see something unless it's at the ledge, like I said, semi stabs ikbal to death once she can no longer fight back he unclothes her primarily most of her clothes are off he unzips his black backpack where he takes out a set of five butcher knives and he starts dismembering her.
I did come across supposed pictures of how her body was found on the wall, It is burned into my brain.
The only way I can describe it, so I can hopefully prevent you from trying to see what this picture is.
The only way I can describe it is, have you ever seen a butcher work?
No, what does that mean, butcher work? If a butcher has a large piece of meat, They'll usually do section by section.
So they'll like section it into three big pieces. stack them onto the side.
And then they'll probably take one of the three pieces and then cut it into smaller pieces. it almost looks like that first step.
He essentially cut her into a few pieces large pieces and then stacked her body parts on the railing side. like a butcher on the railing yeah like for people to see yes You cut, stack, cut, stack, and then maybe you would bring certain pieces to work.
It looks like that. there is a belief online that the reason There's a belief that the reason that it was... The dismembered parts were put on the railing is because...
He was going to attach them to himself. actually was going to suspend himself and not fall off the ledge but that rope didn't end up working. and it is believed the rope was attached to her body parts.
So the idea would be he would fall and then the body parts would slam into him later.
It's like a weird, I guess it's for more horrific graphic show.
Semi ends up tying it to Iqbal's body allegedly with the sick intention that he's going to fall, be suspended for a little bit, and then fall And then her body parts will fall on him.
I guess as people are trying to get him down, her body parts would.
Oh, you're saying like he would tie rope one end to himself, the other end to... Yes. the body parts and wow.
Judging by some parts of the crime scene photos, I can't find clear indication that's the case, but it could be very well i mean i can't 100% tell you with certainty that i saw them tied on the body parts but it does seem like something he would do.
Before he falls off the ledge he waits until Iqbal's mom.
So he picks up Iqbal's mom's call and is like, your daughter is in good hands now. throws the phone off the wall.
Iqbal's mom keeps blowing up her phone. A random man picks up and is like, Oh, I don't know.
I was just walking by. I heard the phone ring in the grass.
But you're saying at this point, nobody has noticed what's going on up here?
Yeah. and then Iqbal's mom comes and he tosses her head off the wall onto the pavement below Iqbal's dad would later say, we walked towards it and that's when I saw my daughter's head.
Semi places her other body parts on the wall.
People are now looking upward and they see, and then he's also on the railing watching everyone.
And eventually he steps forward. Like, it's pretty instant to know what happened.
Iqbal's parents are there. They're explaining that Sami has been stalking Iqbal for years now.
He's killed her, now he's self-exited at the same time.
Police get a call that another body has been found in Semih's bedroom.
19-year-old girlfriend Aisha Noor, all three bodies are taken to the morgue and the police start searching Sammy Chelek's room.
At this point, I think they're just looking for lots of things.
Are there other bodies that just haven't been found yet?
Are there more victims? Did anybody else help him?
They grab his laptop that his dad is now now telling them after two girls are killed.
He's very weird about his laptop. Yeah, I mean, a little too late now, but nevertheless, they grab the laptop.
The police go through his journals, notebooks and they find this very specific drawing.
Semi has lots of bizarre drawings that again, his dad now wants to tell the police about.
But this one in particular, The police, they're into this one.
It's a sketch done by a pencil of a dismembered woman.
If you're not a fan of graphic details, please skip ahead because I'm going to describe it to you.
The body has been cut at the hips. So severed at the hips.
Now you just have the torso. And... The bottom part is inverted.
So instead of your feet being at the bottom, the feet are now rammed into the torso.
Okay, so the feet are into the stomach technically. or where the thighs usually connect.
Right, okay. And now the thighs are where the feet are.
Okay, upside down. Yes. The bottom half.
Yes. The head has been severed and placed... at the calves so right where the thighs should be but now it's the calves because it's inverted in between. just resting on top.
And the arms have been cut at the shoulders and have been shoved into the neck.
And so they're kind of sticking out. That's a drawing.
But the police write in their reports that the crime scene, It's been understood that the method of killing of Iqbal is similar to the drawing drawn by the suspect.
I couldn't see it from the crime scene photos that I've seen.
I can only see from one angle and trust me, that was like i'm not looking for more i didn't even know that that was going to pop up from It's a very intense picture.
It has been singed into my brain and I wish I could go back in time and not click on it.
I will say this is something weird that is not very relevant but my researchers and I were talking about it how It's interesting because this is pure psychoanalyzation.
I probably shouldn't even be doing this.
One thing that we analyzed in our own reactions of these uncensored photos and videos is that for one, when we, first see it.
There's initial like, oh my gosh, I shouldn't be seeing this.
But then once it clicks, there's like nothing for like 10 minutes.
It's like our brains cannot comprehend it.
It's almost like our brain is like, It feels like CGI.
It feels like a weird movie that you saw with editing.
And then your brain eventually catches up.
And it was almost like 10 minutes after we closed those tabs that were like, okay, I kind of want to throw up.
But we've already moved on. We're doing a different, we're looking into something else about this case.
It was so weird. It was just so strange.
The reaction of that was bizarre. Nevertheless, the police go through his things, they find his drawings, they grab his computer and they start interviewing the neighbors.
Now side note, there's this interesting moment where his neighbor talks in an interview, not a police interview, but one neighbor states, I saw him that day.
Yeah, I saw him. If the timelines are correct, this would have been right after he kills Ai Shenor but before he goes to meet and kill Iqbal.
This is likely the first time that he's killed someone and the neighbor just hears this out like, that's what it sounded like like is that from him or from the girl from him Seems like he's panicked.
She goes outside and he's just standing there in the hallway. just like frozen in place, trembling.
She says, when I looked at him, he was pale.
He didn't say anything. He just... sat there on the bench outside for 20 minutes.
I was wondering what happened. I thought, should I call his mom?
I didn't call his mom, but... He's there for like 20 minutes.
Some people interpret this as he was in shock that he killed his girlfriend, But a lot of people interpret this, no, he is in shock and he's mourning that he's probably not going to get away with it. and that he's going to have to follow through on his plan of self-exiting.
So it seemed more so a moment of mourning for his own life. for 20 minutes.
The police talk to the neighbors and they also find a book of interest, various books of interest, including the translated version of Ragdoll by Daniel Cole. a lot of persuasion, psychology persuasion books.
Some netizens have pulled up another quote from the Ragdoll book that reads, Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning.
But give me the man who has the pluck to fight when he's sure of losing.
So people have been using this in relation to the fact that He went after girls that he had already disarmed around him.
Okay, his girlfriend is not on high alert when she's around him.
And then Iqbal, he has been stalking her and tormenting her psychologically. and forces her to meet up with him by threatening her.
So people are saying this is such a coward's crime.
And then to self-exit is another cowardly thing that he did in this situation.
These are the details that we initially know about this case.
The belief being, okay, stalker, kills his victim and then self-exits.
But why did he kill his girlfriend? Some people have mixed feelings about it.
Was it an instance of, if I can't have you, nobody can?
Did he plan to kill others? Was it practice before he kills his victim, like stalker victim?
Nobody really can agree on that first part, but then a tweet starts gaining traction.
Everybody's talking about decoding the message.
People in the comments are like, what message?
The message left at the walls. There was something spray-painted on the walls.
People are like, what? One tweet in particular gets shared countless times and it reads, the boxes are obsessed with you.
And it's under the seal of Lucifer, like the logo of Lucifer, if you will.
But the boxes, they read Kutu. What does that even mean?
I mean, the original poster continues. The Kutu cult.
It's a satanic cult. Basically what happens is at the place of the walls, they find all of these graffiti markings, and one of them has the seal of Lucifer, and the words, the boxes are obsessed with you.
The tweet goes viral and they're insinuating that Semichelic is the one that drew these little symbols and drew these words.
And they say that the Kutu cult is a satanic cult.
This was a ritual. Do we know if that is actually him who graffiti those signs and words?
No. He's not? No. But it just happened to be at the walls where all the crimes took place.
Well, a lot of the crimes took place. And so people start connecting all of these together. and they start effectively, collectively losing their minds on Twitter. i can't find any evidence of a larger or even a smaller existing cult that goes by kutu,
Like if you have small comments here and there, but if they do exist, It's such a niche small group that I don't really know if it's applicable.
But I guess it sounds culty enough so people just start running with this. as if this is a largely established satanic cult.
Writing things like, Kutu Satanist groups consist of small communities.
These groups organize secret rituals using mystical rituals and symbols to attract young people.
It's been suggested that the rituals of these groups contain murder and violent practices.
So they're saying this is par for the course for a cult like this.
Another netizen states, all of them were Satanists.
Iqbal and Semih killed a cat together, Both girls, Iqbal and Aisha Noor, were members of the same cult.
The cult headquarters is near where they live.
All the police need to do is pull Iqbal's WhatsApp records and they will know everything.
But that's the thing about conspiracies.
The more you look for evidence, the more the believers will just like add to the conspiracy.
You're digging. You're trying to find evidence that this conspiracy is real, that there's fact-based evidence involved.
But all you get are people adding to the story of the conspiracy.
It's like adding layers of the cake without even knowing what the ingredients are.
People are saying, well, that doesn't make sense then.
Why wouldn't, Turkish mainstream media sources start relaying this information that this was a satanic ritual.
Well, law enforcement and media figures are trying to cover up the Satanism aspect because they're afraid of the possibility of inspiring and encouraging purging more Satanist attacks.
The only evidence of the conspiracy is there were allegedly a few Satan images spray-painted and drawn near Samy Celik's house and at the walls.
That's about it. which even that's unclear since neighbors don't recall ever seeing such a thing.
If anything, it's more likely that this guy and maybe even some other teenagers in the neighborhood are pseudo-Satanist. which are just people who use satanic symbols, but don't really consider themselves Satanists.
They think it's edgy. They think it's cool.
They think it looks dark and moody. They like the inverted pentagram.
They think it's scary. Spooky. So it seems like that.
The seal of Lucifer itself, I mean, I guess objectively it looks cool.
But that doesn't stop people from peddling this conspiracy.
People start coming out and giving interviews.
There was one anonymous person who gives an interview and says, I'm a Satanist and Semichelic was a well-known figure in our community.
Again, there's no evidence of that so far.
And stating ominously things like... Satanists believe that after death, they will serve as a demon torture in the depths of hell.
Death is an honor in service to Satan. There's also a belief that Semih killed these girls because he believed he could create his own hell and he would need to kill them in order to take them. to hell with him.
I do get the reasoning behind the conspiracy though.
Semi dismembered Iqbal in such a grotesque way that it does make the most sense that it would have been for some sort of sick ritual, but that does not seem to be the case here.
So then what is it? One neighbor remembers Sami Celik and he says, The guy is strange.
There's no way to put it. You know, there's no way to make it pretty and flowery.
He was just obsessed with it. for five years since he was like 14 years old. in order to try and impress her, he would try to make Iqbal jealous by being with other girls He would come and go with all of his girlfriends.
But other than that, he was an introverted kid.
He didn't like making contact with anyone.
He was... like a misanthrope. Basically he hated humans.
He barely greeted anyone. Another neighbor in his 70s, he says, I have seen him many times.
But I've only ever seen him. I've never spoken to him.
We never shared a greeting, never a hi, hello, nothing.
This is the type of neighborhood where everybody knows everybody, but nobody knew him.
One neighbor is pointing at the bench like this is where he would sit and he would have his headphones and he would smoke.
If we pass by him, he just like looks at you. he doesn't say hello no greeting nothing someone who hates people, it's not the same as like, oh, I'm not a very social person.
Oh, I'm introverted. I prefer to spend time alone.
It's different from that. they think humanity is despicable.
And so that was the second thought. After Satanism, people are like, maybe he killed because he just thinks humanity is so vile and corrupt and he being one of them and he's just… playing into these natural ways of humans to find evil and corruption.
It's like a complete condemning of the moral character of humankind.
They're just not cynical. They genuinely believe that humanity is fundamentally evil. that all humans are scum.
So at first there were debates of that, but then when police go through his devices, they realize, no, that's not the case here.
He doesn't hate humans. He just hates women.
He is an incel. Turkish police start combing through Sami's laptop and discover that he's part of multiple Discord servers where incels do incel things.
They talk in dreadful length about anti-feminism and how modern relationship dynamics will be the end of the nuclear family unit which will inevitably lead to the demise of Western civilization as we know it until we can get back. to the baseline fundamental root cause where the bare minimum is training women up and using them for the only thing that they're good for, which is populating the planet.
That is the type of incel groups that he was part of on Discord.
Side note, incels think that women are too dramatic, but the call is like coming from inside their mom's basement.
But like, what do I know? I'm just a female using her mouth for everything but its original intended use.
Because these incel groups, after seeing the news about what Semichelic did, they start commenting on the murders. people are comp these incels are commenting if anyone feels sorry for these whores leave discord immediately Another one reads, now I would want to take a drill to the severed head And do.
Oh, my God. Another says, I can't even think about that cold corpse.
Just the thought of slowly, R wording, A shriveled corpse is exciting.
Another comments, the more I argue with women, the more I realize that women have no brains.
If he had any common sense, he would have just essayed the girl instead of killing her.
Another one reads, if he had any more sense, he would have just effed that dry, cold corpse he killed.
Then another person comments to that thread saying, no, if he essayed her, the girl would have fainted from the pleasure of it all. it's better that she was killed these are crazy At this point, once these incel groups are exposed on Twitter by the Turkish media, people on Twitter start going crazy.
They wanna hunt down these incels by themselves.
And these incels are, they see it. They see it on Twitter and they're commenting on Discord.
There is a dirty witch hunt on Twitter. They are exposing the incels and those who made fun of the incident.
Should I give our Discord server away via DM?
Will the traffic increase? One person responds, don't do it, King.
Wait, are they English speaking? No, these are all translated. like turkish um uh what is it incels are everywhere turkish discord yeah and twitter Right.
Yes. Oh, Twitter is also the, okay, got it.
Yeah. Yeah. Now, October 5th, 2024. So the next day.
Turkey publicly announces a nationwide online surveillance.
They're like, hey, we're going to be freaking watching you guys.
Within 24 hours? Yes. This is happening?
Yes. All over the... Because incels on Discord, they're like, we're going to do the same thing.
We should all take after Semichelic and do it.
I think a good chunk of them are not serious.
I mean, they're in their mom's basement doing nothing with their lives, but obviously law enforcement, government entities, they're concerned.
Netizens in Turkey decide, okay, well, we might as well hunt down these incels that are agreeing with and basically praising Semi, I think everyone was expecting to find a bunch of unfortunate, non-contributing members of society who want to appear edgy with hot takes They're probably smelly and their keyboards are sticky.
That's about it. That's what Turkish netizens think they're going to end up finding.
Even on Twitter, they're like, yeah, nationwide surveillance online.
Great, but... Most of these incels are just keyboard stompers.
They're like writing things about women. they don't even have the balls to talk to like a female barista. they're not gonna go replicate Sammy's crimes.
Not that incels are okay, but they just don't know if it's that serious at first.
They're just reading some of the most brain dead think pieces.
People are like, I mean. Are you sure that they're going to do something?
So one reads, to humanity. Women should not have the right to choose who they mate with and reproduce with.
This choice should be made by rational men with common sense."
If women continue to have this right, they will hinder the progress of the human race by mating with corrupt men and producing stupid, corrupt offspring.
This will cause humanity to become more corrupt with each generation just because of sex women have more power over society than they deserve.
There is no creature more evil and corrupt than the human female.
Women are like the plague. They do not deserve to have any rights.
Women are bastards. I will spend my life defending this sentence.
I don't believe that a woman has a right to live.
I wouldn't slap a woman because I don't want my hand to touch the skin of that foolish gender's shitty skin.
But if someone else is inflicting violence on women, I would support it.
Ha, by the way, I'm not gay. Love that.
Okay. But if I had to choose between the two, I would choose man because women are worthless.
No matter what you say, this new generation of women are nothing but whores.
They get effed in the ass every day and smell of farts.
A 19 year old wife bastard is always less valuable than a 19 year old man.
Men always have value. These think pieces start complaining that girls like Aishanor and Iqbal were probably nothing but whores who slept with at least three men a day.
Now, mind you, and I'm not someone that graduated from college, but These two girls, they were in college.
Semi had recently left his butchering job.
So he was unemployed, he was living, mooching off of his parents. had no direction in life, which is fine to be lost, but like, It's weird that these people are using that against them.
Like, oh, they're in college sleeping with college boys.
It's so strange. There is no proof of that, by the way.
They deserved what they got. Meanwhile, Semi died, even though he's just a hardworking butcher trying to earn a living.
I can't even take this guy seriously, especially because he's making tweets from his own personal account and not even a throwaway so he promptly does get arrested for inciting violence against women and he's kicked out of his university Wait.
Yeah. They found this person because of this case?
Yes. Yes. What? Yeah, but I mean, women are brainless, right?
That is interesting. Wow. They should do more of this.
I didn't know they could just like, boom, find you.
In Discord too? I thought they were really hard to track down.
He was tweeting, Discording, all with his full government name.
He did not care. And he thinks women are brainless.
Now, I will say, I don't know if without the crime if it would be considered inciting violence.
But I think it was because he was using that crime and then coupling it with saying these types of things and then encouraging people, it made it incitement of violence.
It's also very dramatic and cringe and an uncomfortable monologue that only sounds good in their little minds.
That's crazy. So his face and everything's out there.
Yes. You saw it? Yeah, he was actually taken into custody at the university.
And there's pictures of that too. Incredible.
So citizens in Turkey think this is the extent of the incel groups that Semih Celik was part of.
And it's not just netizens. Journalists are also going into the depths of the Discord servers that have...
Some of these Discord servers, and I love Discord, but some of those servers... they have never seen a speck of sunshine in their existence.
Like, I don't know who are frequenting these Discord servers, but they are just...
It's bad. And they come across as they go deeper into this incel discord server rabbit hole.
They come across Turkey's version of the anthromes. because of Sami Celik's case.
The police. and Turkish netizens. So it almost became like a hunting party.
Turkish netizens are like, yeah, Let's fucking go on Discord and hunt down these incels.
These incels start leading them to other Discord servers that eventually leads them to Turkey's version of the nth rooms. an entire syndicate of Discord servers, some connected by some of the same users, others are connected by the same revolting for torture.
This summer, Instacart is bringing back your favorites from 1999 with prices from 1999.
That means 90s prices on juice pouches that ought to be respected.
90s prices on box mac and cheese and 90s prices on ham, cheese, and cracker lunches.
Enjoy all those throwbacks and more at throwbackprices.com.
$4.72 maximum discount per $10 of eligible items.
Limit one offer per order. Expires 9-5 while supplies last.
Discount based on CPI comparison. A lot of these groups would start on Discord, bridge over to Telegram, and it's a CSAM child abuse ring. genuinely is the Turkish anthromes.
There's also an American version that we are working on a case for, But there's also a German version, an Italian version, a Brazilian version.
It's never ending. Yeah. Chinese version.
Yeah. People in Turkey find out a lot of the same people that Semih is on Discord servers with are also parts of groups referred to as 901.
The American version is called 764, and I'm going to cover it probably in like a week. but they have branches and people have spun off creating their own servers.
And a lot of it is like international because I guess evil knows no boundaries.
The premise is you blackmail young Turkish girls into self-injuring on camera and making CSAM.
One journalist uncovers a Discord video from one of those groups.
And they write, they made a 12-year-old girl pour perfume on her private parts and then light it on fire.
This is another level of perversion. They are threatening and harming children. authorities have launched an investigation into these individuals.
Anyone who has experienced this type of abuse can contact me.
This is what the journalist is tweeting.
Not a single one of those responsible should be released. with even the slightest information should share it via message.
Your reports are very important. in that discord video you can also hear other members just giggling while the victim is panicking trying to put out the fire And soon after Semi's murders, another video starts circulating of a girl sitting in a purple LED lit room she's clearly using her laptop camera to film a video, and she's crying on her bed.
She states that she has been blackmailed, forced into doing some of the most depraved things by a group of online bullies. the 901.
There's a brief cut in the video where it's just a screenshot of her with blood near the edge of her mouth smeared on her face.
That video is later confirmed to be fake.
But the reason it's fake is crazy because you would think, okay, maybe someone made it to troll. maybe someone made it to highlight the severity of these groups and they needed a victim's face and voice to go along with it so people take it seriously and realize that there are people that are being harmed.
I don't know. Like you would think of 20 other ones.
The members... Fake meaning it's... AI.
Oh, it was complete AI. But it looked real.
It looked pretty real. That video was created by 901 members. which you're thinking, why would they make a video like this, right?
Because it would be a way to bring more traffic to their servers and Telegram groups.
Like other evil people see that and they want to see the full video, for example. because that type of video is easy to circulate on mainstream media.
Because mainstream media is like, look, there are victims.
This is a very real thing. This is a very scary thing.
Meanwhile, the sick, twisted people out there watch the video through mainstream media and they're like, oh, perfect, I can go join this group to partake in my evil activities that I have always wanted an outlet for. but it also just ends up attracting a lot of angry netizens in general, which results in the Discord mods just losing their absolute marbles Another video starts making the rounds of a guy filming his laptop.
So his computer screen is open to the Discord server and he's talking.
We provide a good service That's it, you know?
Recently, we've been the subject of like 80 million people on Twitter talking about us.
The video of the oath blows up on Twitter.
Like there were all these videos blowing up.
The news is so full of it. The important thing for us is not to make a name for ourselves. because he's critiquing the other 901 members that are just trying to Doing too much.
You guys are attracting too much attention.
He's like, the goal... For us, it's to make money.
That's how we win. We are making our money by blackmailing.
But apparently a few sons of bitches are upset about that, that they even want to burn us down on Twitter.
As I've said before, no one can discourage us or stop us. i always stand behind what i do this is how i make money this is how i look after my bread it doesn't matter anyway we will continue to do our job and we're having a good time too.
It's like the entire internet is just combusting at this point.
And then another video starts making its rounds.
It includes someone cutting unknown pieces of flesh.
It's unclear where the flesh comes from and it. includes a picture of two guys FaceTiming with masks on, and the journalist tweets out, The person who killed two young girls by cutting them into pieces did not commit this massacre on a spur of the moment decision.
He's basically insinuating that these Discord groups are getting into the minds of evil people to push them over to the edge to actually to act on those evil thoughts and desires.
So once all the Turkish netizens go through the insult, sell discords they find turkeys and thrumes they start looking at the government like okay well are you going to do something about it And there are a lot of unanswered questions from this case aside from the obvious.
Questions are... You would think a police press conference or mainstream media would be able to answer these questions.
But like, where are Iqbal's clothes? We have to assume that the authorities took them.
Maybe they gave them back to our parents.
More pressing questions such as why was there no blood on Semi's clothes?
Did he take off his shirt? Is that why he was wearing a tank top?
Or timeline questions, because some reports state that Semih spent a total of four hours with Iqbal killing and dismembering her.
We don't know the exact times. Some Turkish media reports states that he killed his girlfriend in his house at around 3.30 PM. and that Iqbal was killed around 4 p.m., but that would be impossible because he was walking towards the walls at 2 p.m.,
It's just a lot of weird, confusing things.
We don't know who found Aishinor in her In Semih's room.
Was it his parents? Was it the police? Furthermore, where the hell is Semih Celik's phone?
It's been revealed that it's missing, that's all we know.
The last signal from his phone was traced to the walls.
Police were seen going through the gaps like the small holes in the stone to see if he wedged it in there somehow, but we don't know if it's been found.
Again, for criminal cases like this, those types of questions get answered and clarified.
All it takes is a press conference but that's never gonna happen because Turkey declares a total media blackout with anything to do with this case. effectively censoring the press from publishing more about this incident.
Why and when did they do that? A few days after.
That's crazy. Turkey has been... accused of media censorship for years.
In 2016, there was a failed coup attempt where media outlets were shut down, journalists were thrown in jails, subsequently put on trial.
And I do want to preface this whole part by saying every country in the world has censorship. even America, just in varying degrees, obviously.
So this is not to say that Turkey is the worst or the only one doing this.
Clearly, that's not the case. but I think it helps provide context to why Turkish citizens were so enraged by this.
In 2023, there was a massive earthquake in Turkey. people were criticizing the government and primarily the president because it's like, There were so many things that could have been done correctly.
And Twitter was being used for people to connect with missing people.
So if you were tweeting on Twitter, like, hey, I'm stuck under this rubble and I'm with my family and we don't know how to get out, like the doors won't open, people would send rescue forces to that area using Twitter.
Landlines were down. People couldn't call anyone.
It was really bad. The government shut Twitter down.
Why? They didn't like the discourse of critiquing the government.
Oh, I see. I see. even though people are using this to find family members, to find people in the disaster.
So Turkey decides they're going to have a blackout media ban. on this entire case. because people are mad that these type of crimes are happening and the government's not doing enough, right?
Yes, and not only that, but there's this whole discourse around this case.
And there's a pact called the Istanbul Convention. basically the convention of preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
It's a human rights treaty that outlines legal standards for participating nations to work on eradicating gender based violence. violence so a lot of nations come together and they're like okay we're gonna follow the rules of this treaty in all of our countries Once a country agrees to the Istanbul Convention, they're supposed to agree on the very basic beliefs that, are not even in the slightest controversial or even progressive, that by against women is considered a violation of human rights, that nations must criminalize psychological violence, stalking,
DV, essay, and explicitly criminalize any engagement of non-consensual sexual acts.
So they're saying it's not just our word when you're fully r-wording someone.
It's still, you're still essaying someone. even if you're groping them, even if you're like doing other things or forcing them to do other things.
Forced marriage will be criminalized. female mutilation of the private parts will be criminalized, forced termination of pregnancies will be criminalized, and forced sterilization will all be considered crimes for these nations.
It's far from like the hottest take one could have.
In fact, it borders on being dry ice because it's just not a hot take.
The convention was formed in 2011, where Turkey was ironically the very first country to sign the treaty.
So that's why it's called the Istanbul Convention.
Istanbul is not not Turkey's capital, but it's probably the most internationally well-known city in Turkey.
And they signed the convention. It's open for signing.
And it was actually the only year where femicides, crimes against women have decreased in Turkey wow yeah 2021 Turkey officially withdraws from the convention.
That's crazy why would that happen? It is crazy because the only objective of this convention is to protect women from violence.
And Turkey is like... We're not gonna do that anymore.
The president of Turkey states though, it's not that I want women to die, basically.
But I hate gay people. That's what the president says.
Okay, still, I don't understand. So he, what? attempts to say it with some eloquence, but it's just homophobia.
He states the convention was sneakily trying to... get countries to brainwash and normalize homosexuality to their citizens.
The official statement reads along the lines of the Istanbul Convention originally intended to promote women's rights has been hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality. which is incompatible with Turkey's social and family values, hence the decision to withdraw, aka He's very upset because the convention keeps using terminology like partner instead of wife and husband. bro.
Which is actually more insidious when you realize what it means.
So first of all, not only is it homophobic, but second of all, The term partner also protects not just queer relationships, but straight relationships prior to a marriage certificate.
So instead of domestic violence violence being between wife and husband, which requires legal papers.
It can be partner domestic violence, which means it could be a man to man, woman to woman, but it also could be boyfriend and girlfriend.
Boyfriend, boyfriend, girlfriend, girlfriend.
Wow. Yeah. Is he the same president as of now?
Yes. He's a very scary president. And he was against that.
Another aspect that he didn't like is that a new article from the Istanbul Convention ensured that the victim's account must be taken into consideration.
If someone is alleging there was a crime of DV, you have to take a statement from the victim.
You can't say, ah, it's okay. You have to.
The Turkish president argued that women's accounts cannot be trusted in domestic violence cases, and it could wrongfully accuse met.
Wow, that is so sad. Turkey is the first and only country to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention.
It caused quite an international stir that even our then President Biden had made a formal statement of like, we are very disappointed.
What the fuck is happening? I mean, not that we're...
It's great being a woman in America, but you get it.
It was just bad all around. They actually make history as the first council. of a European member to withdraw from an international human rights convention in general like this is unheard of like you don't withdraw from a human rights convention If Turkey had still been enforcing the laws given by the Istanbul Convention,
Iqbal, in theory, could have gone to the police with that video she was sent where he was like, I wanted to kill you.
And that could have done something to prevent Semi from getting anywhere near Iqbal.
It could have put him under watch. It could have incarcerated him.
It could have done something. Right, right, right.
The best option being throwing him in prison, right?
He just confessed to wanting to gouge out someone's eyes.
But nobody does anything for Iqbal. And so this discourse becomes so big I think Turkey just did not like it.
And to add more tragic irony to all of this, Istanbul is also the same city where Sami murders Ayshanor and Iqbal.
So a few days later, they banned the media.
Nobody's allowed to talk about this. Now, does that become a bigger problem then?
Yeah, but then it gets worse. Now, I will say the Turkish president is rather intense i'm not nearly well versed enough or really at all in turkish politics to say anything but The only thing my Turkish researchers subtly pointed out to me is that...
The Turkish president started his term in 2014.
His current term will not end until 2028. in 14 years, which feels awfully long, especially when you consider that the Turkish constitution states that you can only serve Two five-year terms.
So 10 years, but he's going to serve 14.
Who knows if he's going to serve more? I mean, just to put it lightly, the math isn't mathing.
But the president, after instating a media blackout, does make a statement about the case where he states, quote, in most of the incidents that have taken place in recent days that have broken our hearts as a nation.
We see that both the perpetrator and the victim are young people.
We see that sometimes the pus spreading from digital platforms, sometimes deviant movements, sometimes drug addiction, sometimes alcoholism, sometimes the mafia culture.
Encouraged by television series. And sometimes the gaps in our execution and correctional system play a role in these suffering.
If we as a nation and state do not take steps to prevent these incidents, it is inevitable that we will face the same problems that Western countries face.
We cannot leave our youth at the mercy of modern popular culture.
We cannot stand by and watch our young people disappear into the dark abysses of social media. and digital channels where all kinds of mischief are found.
Our national and spiritual values, which have sustained our nation for centuries, will be our greatest supporters in this struggle.
Our universities, should take more responsibility in this regard and take more care of our young people entrusted in their care.
Every young person we lose to terrorism, drugs, alcohol addiction, deviant movements, and criminal gangs... is on all of us.
I think it would be very difficult for someone to come up with a worse statement.
It was just a pretty horrendous response.
One of the top like comments on that post reads, I don't understand why you're blaming it on us.
Should the public resign? What exactly do you expect from us?
Another comment reads, don't shift the blame to others.
You are the guilty and responsible party.
Resign if you can't do it. Another reads, chief, the burden is not on me, but whoever governs the country.
Will the citizens fight against these incidents or those who govern the country?
Don't make me a partner in your sins. Some people point out, he's basically saying, I get that girls are dying.
I get it. but we have to save our boys from mafia culture.
It's... What? It has almost become routine now for a Turkish woman to get signs and walk onto the streets chanting, we just want to live.
We just want to live. Amnesty International Secretary General states, At the stroke of midnight tonight, Turkey turned its back on the gold standard for safety for women and girls. and they point to a lot of the protests that have been happening after they pull out of the Istanbul Convention And then every time there's a high-profile femicide where a woman is murdered by a man, and usually it's partner-related violence, there will be protests.
It's gotten to the point where a lot of Turkish female netizens they joke that we can just reuse our signs for the next one.
And it's not like a joke, not hee hee ha ha, but sad.
There are also people that are criticizing the whole thing with the Turkish anthromes So you know how in the Korean anthromes, a lot of these people will find a minor and pull them into like a romantic scam where they pretend to be in love with them and then they get some sort of picture, they get their address, they get their parents, workplaces, their schools, and then they start blackmailing them into partaking in these more high stakes videos where everything just like the torture amps up and then they use that to blackmail them again and again. and it continues that way.
The turkey anthromes have a very unique situation.
A lot of the blackmail is random. It feels more random in the sense that, and this is another reason that people are so upset with the government, is Turkey has a government portal where every citizen has to update their personal information on there. pretty in depth, which would make the perfect thing for someone to hack.
And that's exactly what happens. Someone hacks the entirety of the government portal, stealing every piece of data of almost everyone in the entire country.
And they start selling it to whoever has $5.
$5 on Telegram and you get a boatload of citizens' addresses, phone numbers, private medical records, business records, financial records.
You get their whole life. A lot of the kids that are being tortured in the Turkish anthromes, they were blackmailed by random strangers who purchased these data leaks.
So people did this because of what? They are upset with the government or they're just...
No, the hackers, they just want to make some money and they're disgusting people.
I mean, the Turkish portal for the citizens was very low security.
They didn't spend a lot of money or resources. to protect their citizens' data.
And so someone hacks it, they start selling it on Telegram. these bad people buy it and they're part of these 901 groups and they start looking for minors through these data records and they look them up online, they find their social media handles, and then they start blackmailing them.
So it seems like in the Turkish anthromes, yes, like all the other anthromes internationally, the government plays a big role because they don't do shit.
In the Turkish anthromes, it's an even bigger sore spot because...
The blackmailing is happening from a data leak that the government didn't do well to protect the citizens.
It's like the government plays an even bigger role.
So a lot of people were really upset about this.
Which is why three days after the murders, after all this discourse is taking place, Istanbul Convention, There's a media blackout on Semih's case, then people are looking at the Turkish and talking about the Turkey government portal that's been hacked.
All of this is going down And then Discord goes dark.
Goes dark. In the country of Turkey, Discord gets banned.
October 7th, 2024. By the government. Yes.
Okay. They think that this is enough. They say this is going to solve the problem because we're just going to get rid of Discord.
So we got rid of Discord because there were people doing bad things on Discord.
So we're getting rid of Discord, but we're not getting rid of people who are doing bad things.
We just don't know where they'll be doing it anymore.
This is the incident that gets discord banned in the entire country.
And it just doesn't make sense. Banning Discord is going to do nothing but make it harder to find the people committing crimes on there.
They're just going to start using VPNs. And also there are terrifying groups on there, but overall Discord is just another messaging app.
A lot of people act like Discord is the dark web.
Sometimes it feels like it. sometimes reddit feels like it too okay but most people on on there aren't doing anything wrong So just to ban the entire platform is bizarre.
It's the concept of the electricity company wants to lower the amount of power outages they have.
So now when there's a power outage, they don't file a formal report on the power outage. technically you get less power outages, but not really.
It's just weird. You used to have 8 million registered users on Discord from the country of Turkey.
It was ranked 10th in highest in user base in the nation or in the world.
And now it's very difficult. I mean, out of the 8 million formally registered users, how many are back using a VPN?
And out of those that are back, how many of them are doing illegal things that it's now only just going to get harder to find them and track them down.
Is it still BAM? Still banned. Discord is banned.
Roblox is banned. They briefly banned Telegram after this incident, but Telegram can back.
I mean, Turkey does ban a lot of platforms, but usually it's temporary. twitter facebook meta um youtube i think was banned at one point but it's typically temporary there have been slow little information that some of the discord mods for these torture groups have been arrested, but because they are minors, their information is not public.
Yeah. A lot of Turkish netizens have some very interesting insight about that.
Because you know how a big conversation when people are minors doing terrible things is, Well, they're still young.
So a lot of Turkish netizens are now commenting if these people are under 18, Just put them in a bigger cell so they have room to grow.
That's been like the saying of the year, it seems.
And it doesn't seem like things are getting better.
There have been lots of protests at Aishanors University but also at the walls where a lot of the crime takes place, and while locals are gathering and protesting the government just demanding basic human rights for women,
During the two days of protests, six more women are murdered by men. some men in Turkey were initially upset like everywhere they always get upset about how Well, it's not all men.
Just because there's one sick minded butcher out there doesn't mean that there's a nationwide problem.
And then six more women are murdered by men during the protests, which I mean, did kind of shut these men up.
During the protest? Not at the protest, but during the two days, six more women are murdered.
And I believe like 50% of the femicides that happen in Turkey, it's from their romantic partners.
And a lot of the signs read protect your daughters and it's scratched out and it just reads educate your sons underneath.
Meanwhile, Semih's parents are just pissing everyone off even more.
They do an interview after this case. And this is before like the major media ban.
But they do an interview where Semih's dad and Semih's mom basically blame Iqbal.
And they say, hey, you know how messed up our son was mentally.
Wow. But you still didn't move out of the city.
You didn't do anything. You know that our son... was not well up here.
See, that's what I was thinking. the whole time is there's no way if he started stalking at 14 years old, what are the parents doing?
Like if it was a known thing for that many years by that many people, what are the parents doing?
Okay, a lot of neighbors were talking about it.
They say that they hear the dad screaming at Sammy and Sammy screaming back at the dad.
So it seems like That was the thing. They also say the dad is like not involved in the neighborhood.
You think just semi is not social with the neighbors?
His dad is not social either. Then the mom, at one point, Semi had thrown something onto the balcony of one of the neighbors.
And she thought it was rude and he's a kid.
So she calls Sammy's mom and is like, hey, your son is kind of fucking crazy.
Let me tell you what happened. And the mom just has this very bland, blunt, like, okay, well then you should probably just report it.
It's like, okay, if you got a problem with it, call the cops.
And she's like, no, I'm calling you because I'm not trying to call the cops on your son.
It's just like, she's like, okay, well then go file a complaint and just hangs up.
Yeah, that makes sense. They… It's crazy how they proudly state everything wrong with their son.
Like in the interviews, they're stating how…
Yeah, he was drawing alarming things. He was obsessed with his butchering knives.
He was obsessed with his computer. We could never see what was on his computer.
He just had lots of issues. He was hospitalized five times in the last year. oh the school would call and say that semi should not be hanging out with their kids because the kids parents are noticing shifts in their attitude, like he's just a really bad influence. but it's Iqbal's parents that are the problem because If they knew she was being stalked by someone as crazy as our son, they should have taken better precautions for their own daughter.
Did they have any signs of remorse, guilt, sadness?
In fact, a neighbor was interviewed and said that Semih's parents were very angry after this incident.
Because they're the victims now. People are blaming them.
Whether it's that or whether it's the fact that they're angry at their son, but they can't take it out on him because he's gone or they're angry at the world who took away their son, it's just a weird emotion regardless.
I mean, there's no way to spin it where it's, a rightful emotion.
Also they use Iqbal's own mental health against her because at one point Iqbal, was contemplating self exiting.
And so now Sami's parents are almost trying to hint to citizens that perhaps she begged him to murder her because she didn't want to self exit Ain't no way.
They say that on TV? Like, it's an article, but it's the insinuation.
It's not like straight up, we think, but it's more like, well, planning on self-exiting together at one point very early on in their friendship Because they were friends at the same school.
Before, hey, you're crazy. We got to stop this friendship.
And then her parents moved schools. for her he keeps stalking her and October 2024
So this happens on the 4th, like the beginning of October.
That month, the rest of October is actually the highest number of record breaking femicides in a single month. in Turkey.
48 recorded femicides in one month. and those are just the recorded ones there are a lot of suspicious deaths um This is actually very fascinating and I really want to dive deep into this, but there are lots of suspicious deaths all around the world, where they are not considered femicides, but they are women falling from tall buildings, usually their residences. and they're reported as self exits.
But there is this like phenomenon and belief that they are not self exits. whether it's physical pushing or whether it be psychologically to the point where they are pushed.
Mm. but lots of scholars and people who are experts in this, they say, don't know how many of those could be femicides.
That makes sense. Adding another layer of complexity to things, a lot of politicians were in attendance to both Aish Anor and Iqbal's funerals. and it's just a very odd juxtaposition.
Aisha Noor's mother could barely stand she's holding onto her daughter's coffin, refusing to let go, And you just, there's a video funeral and you barely see her being able to hold herself up anymore and she just looks exhausted She's sitting while the men are standing in tight formation almost acting like a wall for Aishinor's mother and they're saying their prayers in unison Meanwhile, politicians are showing up and they're telling Aishanur's mother that they're taking it very seriously.
The sentiment amongst locals being, okay, well, you should have taken it seriously before.
Like, we don't need your thoughts and prayers now.
Iqbal's funeral took place on the same day and Iqbal's father was on his knees or in a folded chair most of the time, he could only stand for the prayers.
He would alternate between staring like he's zoning out to screaming and crying for his daughter And at the very end, Iqbal's little brother who kept his composure for majority of the funeral throws himself onto the coffin and he's just crying like give my sister back And all the men in the crowd get up to carry her casket above their heads, singing a prayer in unison.
Meanwhile, it was initially announced that Semi's funeral had been cancelled for obvious security reasons, but it's later revealed that that was just a mislead from authorities to deter any trouble or confrontations.
His funeral was carried out. Only three people were in attendance.
His name is not written on his grave and... netizens comment i wish they would just tear him to the pieces and throw him into a pit People are upset that he's occupying a place in a cemetery.
People are also upset that he's not cremated.
So Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country.
And for a lot of Muslims, cremation is not good.
Cause you're burning your body and it's like a very religious sentiment.
And so a lot of people on. Turkish social media, they're saying we need to burn him, we need to burn him, we need to cremate his body, which I will say like the RM team and I, we were like a little confused of... it doesn't seem like the harshest insult to give someone, because a lot of people in the US are cremated. but they were explaining it actually is a very grave thing that you just don't say to people. to cremate their bodies.
And so with that, that is the case of what happened in Turkey, October 4th, 2024.
Have you guys heard about this case? Because I did get emails about this case and it took a long time to get all of the research together because there was just such limited information.
But what are your thoughts? And if you're from Turkey, I really want to know your thoughts.
And be safe, and I'll see you in the next one.
Hi, it's Stephanie Hsu. Want to listen to new episodes of Rotten Mango ad-free?
Rotten Mango is now part of SiriusXM's Podcast Plus.
With SiriusXM's Podcast Plus subscription, you'll get this podcast. plus benefits on dozens of select podcasts within the SiriusXM network.
What are you waiting for? Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com slash podcast plus. to start your free trial today.
