Mother of killer Semih Çelik speaks out: 'I wish I had died instead'

In Istanbul's Fatih district, on October 4 at approximately 16:00, 19-year-old Semih Çelik murdered 19-year-old İkbal Uzuner and 19-year-old Ayşenur Halil within a half-hour interval. Semih Çelik, who climbed onto the Edirnekapı walls, decapitated İkbal Uzuner, whom he had killed, and threw her head down. The murder suspect then put a rope around his neck and jumped from the walls, ending his own life. The mother of the murderer, Semih Çelik, has made statements regarding her son.

According to a report by Sabah newspaper, the mother, speaking through tears, said: "I fought so hard for my child. I took him to hospitals. When he attempted suicide, I took him to a doctor. They said there was nothing wrong with him. I called an ambulance to the house, and they said he didn't need an ambulance. I struggled, I burned, I screamed, but I couldn't heal my son. Whatever happened, happened after the pandemic when he shut himself in his room. When I saw the state my son was in, I reached out to İkbal's family and said, 'Keep your daughter away. My son is not well, take your daughter and get her out of here.' They transferred her from the school, but their connection was never broken. İkbal had also attempted suicide by taking pills last year. After that, they stayed apart for a while, but their connection still didn't break."

WHAT HAPPENED ON THE DAY OF THE INCIDENT?

Stating, "Semih called me via video call on the day of the incident," the mother said, "I asked, 'My son, what are you doing, how are you?' He said, 'Mom, I'm fine, Ayşenur is with me now, she's in the bathroom, she's shy and doesn't want to appear on screen.' We chatted a bit about this and that, and then he hung up. I didn't sense any abnormality. Whatever happened to my son, it happened after the pandemic with drug use."

'HE USED TO DRAW NATURE AND WOMEN'

Stating that he was constantly drawing in his room, his mother said, "But I never came across such bad drawings. That was the first time I saw a drawing like that. He was always drawing nature, sometimes he would draw pictures of women. He would show them to me. My son was someone who knew how to talk to people and didn't speak nonsense. He was a well-equipped child who loved to read. When he started working as a butcher, he probably had some money, and he was likely buying drugs during that period. Other than that, he lived on the pocket money I gave him. It is impossible for him to have bought drugs with that money," she said.

'I WISH I HAD DIED'

Çelik's mother stated, "I am suffering so much pain; my child has been in the ground for days, but I feel for those girls, I am helpless. I could not solve my son's problem; he was prone to suicide. I wish he had only taken his own life. I wish I had died instead, so those girls would not have died. I am a mother too; would I ever want a child's head to be thrown in front of a mother?"