A woman working at the Turkish Parliament has been killed by her husband while awaiting a divorce.
Saliha Akkaş, 40, a mother of two and an administrative staff member serving tea in the Public Relations building, was fatally stabbed by her husband, Salih Akkaş, 45, at her home in Ankara’s Çankaya district.
The murder took place after she allowed him into her home to talk. He later hanged himself.
Salih Akkaş had a history of threatening and insulting his wife and had violated a restraining order.
Parliament employees held a minute of silence on the steps of the Public Relations building in protest at the killing of their colleague.
Opposition members of parliament condemned the government, pointing to its withdrawal from the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on violence against women and domestic violence and describing the killing as part of a wider pattern of femicides in Turkey.
