Gelisim News

IGU Asst. Prof. Dr. Sociologist Kemal Er said: “It is not right to consider these cases as mass suicide. We need to have sufficient information, documents and data in order to evaluate them as mass suicide. However, we have not got any in these cases. In fact, there is a child involved in the last incident in Bakirköy, who is unlikely to have made such a decision. Therefore, without information, documents we cannot say such a thing. A collective decision must be made for mass suicide. However, this is not the case here. In other words, there are mass suicides committed by sects. A certain closed culture may have decided collectively within that culture, but this is not the case here. It is possible to say something about mass suicide, let's take individual suicide as an example. In individual suicide, just as a person consciously decides to commit suicide, people who have commit suicide in mass suicide must have made a joint decision together. We cannot say such a thing because we do not have enough information and documents about such a situation here.”

Stating that people can stay under enormous pressure and make such decisions when they don't find out how to deal with pressure Er continued his words as follows:

“In terms of evaluating suicide, of course, we mean collective suicide here, to evaluate it as suicide does not justify. Suicide is a condition that needs to be emphasized. It may be necessary to investigate what causes the suicides. This may have sociological and psychological reasons. The sociological cause may be social deterioration, for example. It may be that state of a person or a family is getting worse. Poverty can lead to suicide. There may be reasons such as excessive tradition pressures. But it is not possible to generalize it. Because people who stay in the same situation do not engage in such actions. As an example, how can an individual decide when a suicide decision is made as a result of great pressure? There may be a situation of depression. There may be millions of people living in the same situation, but not everyone chooses the same path of suicide. Therefore, sociological and psychological aspects of the work should be examined. It is important that sociologists increase their research on this issue. Again, psychologists may be involved in studies on these issues or in case of psychological help. If possible, such assistance should be provided free of charge. We have institutions that do this and these people need to be helped through these institutions.”

Dr. Kemal Er stating that people can make such decisions when the standard of living suddenly deteriorates, added:

"There may be a suicidal situation in relation to living standards. It is not so much for people to commit suicide because they are already accustomed to these conditions which are already living in poverty and certain troubles. Those who are unable to pay, who have to constantly discuss with the landlord, who are in a state of hunger are not accustomed to such a situation, and those who cannot overcome this situation may have to make such decisions because of excessive pressure, but there is a situation that needs to be underlined. a person, especially the person carrying all the responsibility of the family cannot withstand these pressures, as a result of such a way cannot find a way out.”

“We cannot evaluate the events as insanity because there is a planning here” – with this words Er evaluated last events and continued:

“Is there a crime here? Is there a murder? It should be investigated in detail. There is a case in which a person allegedly decides this, poisoning others with cyanide and then committing suicide. However, in order to define this as a murder and to define it as a deliberate murder, the psychological dimension of the event should be evaluated. In other words, the incident should be examined in detail, we do not have enough information, documents at the moment. It cannot be described as insanity. Because, as we have seen in the case of insanity, a person can kill his closest relatives with a gun because of psychological pressure at that moment. We can't talk about a sudden incident here, because apparently there is a killing with cyanide. It is very obvious in this case that the person is investigating this. In other words, he has researched this cyanide, researched where to find it, could not get out of the planned work and it is understood that he realized it with this decision.”