Death of Tuğçe Albayrak

In the early hours of 15 November 2014, a German student by the name of Tuğçe Albayrak (born November 28, 1991) was struck[1] and fatally injured outside a McDonald's restaurant in Offenbach am Main after intervening on behalf of two young women who were being harassed by a man. They got reportedly into a verbal fight and she is said to have insulted him before the fatal blow got thrown, which a witness later testified in court. The video footage lacks sound so the details could never get solved.[2] Albayrak was born to Turkish-German parents; she lived in Gelnhausen and was studying to become a German and ethics teacher at the University of Giessen.[3][4]

Posters, candles and flowers in memory of Tuğçe Albayrak on December 6, 2014, Hanover

The incident was widely reported in German and Turkish media and engendered a national debate in Germany about youth crime and civil courage.

Incident
Place of incident

According to witnesses, the attack took place after Albayrak had attempted to intervene in a situation between three men who were harassing two teenage girls in the toilets of the McDonald's restaurant. One of the men later attacked her outside, in the restaurant's parking lot.[2]

A surveillance video showing the attack was published online by the Bild newspaper on 1 December. Police say the video had not been cleared for publication and they are investigating how it came to be released. The video shows Albayrak standing among a group of people in the parking lot. After a few minutes, the attacker enters the image. He is visibly agitated, gesticulating towards the group while being held back on one arm by a friend. The attacker leaves the field of view, and re-appears shortly, now about 20–m from the group. Albayrak is seen leaving the group to confront the attacker. The attacker's friend is now standing immediately between attacker and victim. The attacker suddenly strikes past his friend, hitting the victim, who falls to the ground immediately.[5]

Albayrak sustained severe brain damage and fell into a coma. Doctors pronounced her brain dead on 26 November.[6] Her parents decided to remove her life support on 28 November, her 23rd birthday.[7]

The attacker was identified as Sanel M.,[8] a citizen of Serbia, whose place of birth was variously reported as the Sandžak region of southwestern Serbia[9] and Offenbach, Germany.[10] M. was reported as having a previous record of violence in Germany, including a conviction for battery, besides counts of burglary and theft.[11] He was taken into custody and was said to have admitted to attacking Albayrak. In June 2015, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment for manslaughter.[12] In April 2017 he was deported to Serbia and barred from Germany for eight years.[13]

Reactions

The attack and its aftermath were intensely covered by both Turkish and German newspapers. The Turkish-language German paper Sabah Avrupa in its 16 November edition cited one of the victim's friends, who described the incidents in terms of "the Serbs waited for us and insulted us again. But we defended ourselves, and one of them slapped me, then he ran over to Tuğçe and punched her".[14] Other Turkish newspapers picked up on the attackers being a "Serb" and several newspapers published a photograph showing the attacker grinning. Takvim labelled the photograph "the Serbian butcher". Frankfurter Rundschau criticized the ethnic connotation in Turkish media, pointing out that the attacker is a native of Sandžak, a region predominantly inhabited by Bosniaks, and Offenbach police issued a statement saying they have no indication that the attack had any "ethnic background".[15]

On 27 November, hundreds of people held a vigil outside the restaurant,[16] followed by a number of vigils across Germany on 29 November, with a total number of attendees in the thousands.[17] Bosniak-Swiss footballer Haris Seferović offered a tribute to the victim by means of a message on his T-shirt following his goal in Eintracht Frankfurt's 2–0 Bundesliga win over Borussia Dortmund on 30 November.[18] After her death, more than 200,000 people signed an online petition calling for the German president to posthumously award her the Federal Order of Merit.[19][20] German President Joachim Gauck wrote to Albayrak's family to give his condolences, calling her a role model—"where other people looked the other way, Tuğçe showed exemplary courage and moral fortitude."[21]

References
  1. "Accused: I didn't mean to kill woman who stopped harassment". DPA International. dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH. 24 April 2015. Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  2. Bartsch, Matthias (26 November 2014). "Offenbach: Prügelei in Fast-Food-Lokal - Studentin erliegt ihren Verletzungen". Der Spiegel (in German). Archived from the original on 3 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  3. Crolly, Hannelore (28 November 2014). "Ins Koma geprügelt: Das Leben der mutigen Tugçe A." Die Welt (in German). Archived from the original on 8 February 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  4. Smale, Alison (2 December 2014). "An Immigrant's Death Exposes German Struggle for a Multicultural Ideal". New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 June 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  5. P. Rossberg, "Das Beweis-Video. BILD zeigt, was in der Nacht wirklich geschah +++ Melden sich jetzt die Zeugen?",Bild, 1 December 2014.
  6. "Tausende trauern um Tugçe". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 28 November 2014. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  7. Connolly, Kate (30 November 2014). "Germans pay tribute to student, 23, killed for trying to help harassed girls". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 March 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  8. "Teen convicted in death of German-Turkish student". Archived from the original on 2015-06-18. Retrieved 2015-06-16.
  9. Crolly, Hannelore (28 November 2014). "Das Leben der mutigen Tugçe A." Welt. Archived from the original on 8 February 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  10. "Schläger Sanel M. war betrunken". Spiegel Online. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  11. Hannelore Crolly, "Damit muss der Verdächtige im Fall Tugçe A. rechnen" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Die Welt, 27 November 2014.
  12. Connolly, Kate (1 December 2014). "Tuğçe Albayrak's father urges rescued girls to come forward". Archived from the original on 18 May 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  13. "Tugce-Schläger Sanel M. wird am Vormittag abgeschoben" (in German). hessenschau.de. 20 April 2017. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  14. Cemil Albay (16 November 2014). "Yardıma koştu komalık oldu". Sabah Avrupa. Archived from the original on 24 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  15. Timur Tinç, Frankfurter Rundschau, "Der serbische Schlächter". Türkische Medien zum Fall Tuğçe A., 27 November 2013.
  16. Tayman, Enis; Doğan, Kazım (28 November 2014). "Germany bids farewell to brave Turkish young woman". Hürriyet. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  17. Deardan, Lizzie (29 November 2014). "Tugce Albayrak: Germany pays tribute to student killed for helping harassed women". The Independent. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  18. Zuvela, Matt (30 November 2014). "Bundesliga Frankfurt win leaves Dortmund last, Wolves win". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 1 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  19. Maycan, Taylor (30 November 2014). "Turkish student who helped harassed teenage girls has died". USA Today. Archived from the original on 1 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  20. "Video published of attack of slain student". The Washington Post. 1 December 2014. Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  21. "Outpouring of grief for German student Tugce Albayrak, killed for defending teens". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 December 2014. Archived from the original on 1 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.

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