In recent years, femicides and violence against children in particular have remained one of Turkey’s most painful issues. While 2024 witnessed one of the highest recorded numbers of femicides, even at the beginning of 2026, the killing of very young children like Atlas Çağlayan over trivial reasons such as a “sideways glance” has pushed public demand for “deterrent punishment” to its peak. One of the most criticized issues by the public in Turkey is sentence reductions, commonly described as criminals “entering through the front door and leaving through the back door.” With new regulations that came into effect at the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, minimum penalties were increased especially for crimes such as carrying unlicensed firearms, blocking roads in traffic, and firing “stray bullets.” The aim was to ensure that offenders serve at least some time in prison and to reduce the public perception of “impunity.” Each new judicial reform package, while aiming to reduce overcrowding in prisons on one hand, can on the other hand create a feeling among victims’ families that “justice has not fully been served.” In recent incidents in Turkey (for example, extraordinary cases such as a prosecutor shooting a judge at the Kartal Courthouse), society expects justice to be realized not only on paper but also in the social conscience. Proportionate punishments like the 50-year sentence in the video we shared have become one of the main demands of victims’ families in Turkey. 

Is this justice?