HONOR CRIMES IN TURKEY: RETHINKING HONOUR KILLINGS AND RECONSTRUCTING THE COMMUNITY USING RESTORATIVE JUSTICE SYSTEM

The issue of honor killings, which is under a great deal of writings and sayings in recent our days, has been a controversial and much disputed subject within the concept of the tradition. Not only ‘tradition motifs’ but cultural and religious bases have carry importance in this sense. According to traditional beliefs, honor is intimately connected with female sexuality and the only way to restore familial honor once it is damaged by a woman’s sexual misconduct is by killing the guilty woman. On one hand, some contend that it would be necessary to assess the effects of Islamic religion, on the other some find associations between honor killings and traditional and cultural practices without religious contexts. The issue has grown in importance in light of recent legal efforts such as the current Turkish criminal procedure created some victim-offender mediations integrating the criminal process. These explanations have thrown up important following questions: to extent to which the principles of criminal justice can be integrated into the Restorative Justice system and is it a suitable justice intervention? By considering new attempts including educative and informative legal and social programs, an effective and desirable Restorative Justice process can have an opportunity to be established regarding the patriarchal community structure in modern Turkey.