Brought to the agenda by Semih Çelik: Who are these Incels?

Last Friday in Istanbul, 19-year-old Semih Çelik died by suicide after murdering two young women, Ayşenur Halil and İkbal Uzuner.

Investigations following the murder revealed that Çelik was linked to an internet subculture known as "incel."

Derived from the English words "involuntary celibate," the term "incel" describes individuals who are hostile toward women and society and are prone to violence.

This group, which is also active in Turkey, uses social media to spread hate speech and calls for violence against women.

According to a report by Ferit Zengin and Eren Koca from Milliyet, examinations of Semih Çelik’s phone revealed that he was in communication with the “incel” community on a messaging application.

It was determined that "supportive" and "praising" posts directed at Çelik were shared within this group following the murder.

Following this, the police launched a major pursuit across the country.

Cyber patrol teams have begun monitoring "incel" groups as well as content and posts containing sexual or violent material.

The efforts are expected to lead to operations and detentions.

According to a report by Fulya Soybaş from Hürriyet, "incels" are a group who believe that women will never show interest in them due to reasons such as being "ugly" or "poor," and who transform this situation into misogyny and violence.

According to the hypergamy theory they believe in, women only date men who are "handsome," "wealthy," and "have status."

For this reason, disadvantaged men believe they are doomed to remain alone.

Founded in 1994 as a support group by a woman named Alana, the "involuntary celibate" community was eventually taken over by men and transformed into a violent ideology.

Today, the incel community has spread through Reddit, Discord, and social media platforms.

Incel communities, which are also active in Turkey, are making hateful posts against women on social media platforms.

Forums feature announcements such as, "Are you ugly? Still haven't been able to form a proper relationship with a girl? Then this is the place for you."

Groups are being formed and chat rooms created on the X platform under the name "TurkIncells."

In these groups, which call for murder and rape, praise is heaped upon Semih Çelik, and it is argued that violence should be perpetrated against women.