Uzbek killed by fellow Uzbeks: body dismembered

The decapitated body of an Uzbek woman has been found in a garbage container in Turkey. Her head was later discovered in a suitcase discarded on another street. Uzbek citizens have been detained on suspicion of committing the crime. Following the brutal murder of the Uzbek migrant woman, thousands of women took to the streets in Turkey in protest. Qalampir.uz will shortly publish detailed information about this horrific crime.

Brutal murder

On the night of January 24 this year, a gruesome incident occurred in the Duatepe neighborhood of Istanbul’s Sisli district. At around 7:40 p.m. local time, a man named Okan, who collects waste and paper in the area, was searching through a garbage container outside a building at 25 Kuyulubag Street when he noticed a body wrapped in sheets and plastic bags. He immediately reported the situation to the police.

According to Okan, he noticed a black bag while rummaging through the container. When he tore it open, he saw blood and a human body and realized that the body was still warm. He then went to the Ferikoy police station to report the incident. Law enforcement officers who arrived at the scene cordoned off the area and launched a large-scale investigation. It was determined that the body belonged to a woman. However, her head and severed legs were missing.

According to another witness, the remaining body parts had been placed in a suitcase and discarded in one of the garbage bins on Bozkurt Street, several streets away. CCTV footage later showed the suspects transporting the body in a suitcase and disposing of it.

As a result of investigative work conducted by the Public Security Department, the victim was identified through fingerprint analysis. She was confirmed to be 37-year-old Uzbek citizen Durdona Hakimova.

Istanbul police detained two suspects at Istanbul Airport while they were attempting to flee to Georgia. According to police, the murder was committed by an Uzbek construction worker who was reportedly in a close relationship with the victim. Another construction worker allegedly assisted him.

“We met Durdona Hakimova on the day of the incident, and a relationship began between us. We got into an argument, and I stabbed her to death. Then, together with my friend, we dismembered the body. We packaged the body parts separately, placed them in a suitcase, took a commercial taxi to the Sisli district, and disposed of the body and its parts in different garbage containers,” the suspect said.

The taxi driver who transported the suspects was also detained. As a result, the total number of people arrested in connection with the case has risen to three.

To clarify the details of the incident and the investigation process, Qalampir.uz Editor-in-Chief Qamariddin Shaykhov, who is currently in Turkey, contacted Uzbekistan’s Consul General in Istanbul, Sherzod Abdunazarov.

Migrant women are not alone

Following the brutal murder of the Uzbek migrant woman, women took to the streets across Turkey in protest. On January 26, demonstrations began at around 4:00 p.m. local time near Osmanbey metro station in Istanbul and in front of the Human Rights Monument on Yuksel Street in Ankara. The protesters marched toward Kuyulubag Street, where the body was found, chanting slogans against male violence, including “Migrant women are not alone.”

Women carried placards reading “Stop male violence,” “We want a safe and free life,” “Femicide is a political issue,” “Three women killed in Sisli in one year,” “Migrant women are not alone,” and “We demand accountability for murdered women.”

“Yesterday, in the very center of Istanbul, in Sisli, the lifeless body of our woman friend was found in a garbage container. Her body had been dismembered. The authorities are responsible for Durdona’s death. If women are being deprived of their right to live even in the heart of Istanbul, this is the result of this government’s policies. According to the perpetrator’s statement, he met Durdona on the day of the incident, had a relationship with her, argued, and then killed her. How easy it is to say this, isn’t it? But a woman was killed. This statement is aimed entirely at reducing the sentence. Durdona was a migrant. Perhaps she came to work, had dreams, wanted to build a new life. Those dreams were taken away from her. In 2025, 294 women were killed. All of them could still be with us today,” local women said during the protest.

In a statement, the “We Will Stop Femicide” platform said the incident was a result of policies of impunity, indifference toward femicide, and a failing justice system. “Perpetrators are so confident they will not be punished that they can leave the body of a murdered woman in a garbage container in the very center of the city, in plain sight,” the statement said.

Even Sisli District Governor Resul Emrah Sahan, who has been imprisoned since March 23, 2025, commented on the murder from Silivri Prison. He stressed that femicide is turning into a “massacre” due to impunity and negligence.

“The news of the brutal murder of 36-year-old Uzbek citizen Durdona Hakimova in Sisli yesterday reached me today in Silivri. Femicide is turning into an ever-growing massacre due to impunity, negligence, and silence. This problem must be addressed collectively, from neighborhoods to law enforcement, social services, municipalities, and central authorities. I stare at the wall and think: how do we protect women, girls, Durdonas, Shirin?s? I will follow this case until it is solved and the perpetrators receive the harshest punishment. Until the streets of Sisli, Istanbul, and the entire country are safe for women, we will not sleep peacefully,” he said.

Durdona Hakimova is not the first Uzbek woman to be brutally killed in Turkey. In previous cases, several women described as vulnerable were subjected to violence and, most tragically, killed by their own compatriots.

In particular, on August 17, 2025, an Uzbek woman was brutally murdered by her husband on Aytashi Street in the Ihlamurkuyu neighborhood. According to reports, the man became jealous, argued with his wife, and during the dispute, the 35-year-old slit her throat. The woman died at the scene from her injuries. After killing his spouse, the man fled. Istanbul police arrested him the following morning, on August 18, in Umraniye. During the investigation, he confessed to the crime.

Another case occurred in September 2025 in Istanbul’s Fatih district, one of the cities with the largest Uzbek population in Turkey. A 36-year-old woman named Zulayho was stabbed in the throat and became a victim of brutal violence.

After friends were unable to contact her for several days, the landlord and one of her friends went to check on her apartment. She was found lying in a pool of blood in her rented home in the Aksaray neighborhood.

Police were immediately notified. When investigators and emergency medical teams arrived at the scene, doctors confirmed that the woman had already died. According to the Consulate General, her real name was different. She had been deported several years earlier for violating residence rules in Turkey and was banned from re-entering the country. She later returned after changing her name and surname. Her killer has not yet been identified.

These murders have also sparked widespread debate in Uzbekistan. Opinions vary, and despite the identities of the perpetrators and victims being known, the situation is not viewed in purely black-and-white terms. Many women who hold labor migrant status in Turkey fear a particular stigma, as Turkish media frequently report on the detention of Uzbek women accused of earning money through illegal means. As a result, suspicion is often cast on other women who earn an honest living. In cases involving death, this assumption is often raised first.

Speaking without knowing the full facts or having sufficient evidence is always easy. For this reason, the Qalampir.uz team urges readers to exercise caution when expressing opinions, especially in cases involving the loss of human life.