ISTANBUL: A judge was shot Tuesday at an Istanbul courthouse by her public prosecutor ex-husband, who was prevented from firing a second shot by a day-release prisoner serving tea, Turkish media reported.
The incident took place inside a courthouse on the Asian side of Istanbul at around 1:00 p.m. (1000 GMT), DHA news agency said.
Judge Asli Kahraman sustained serious injuries when her ex-husband, Muhammet Cagatay Kilicaslan, opened fire, hitting her in the groin, Sozcu newspaper reported.
He was about to fire again but was stopped by a man who was serving tea, a convict out on day release who was working at the court, both sources said.
Kahraman received first aid at the scene before being rushed to hospital, where she was said to be in stable condition.
Kilicaslan was arrested and was due to appear at Istanbul’s main courthouse later on Tuesday, Sozcu said.
The incident drew sharp condemnation from the We Will Stop Femicides platform.
“A female judge was shot with a firearm by her former husband, a prosecutor, in full view of everyone at the Istanbul Kartal Anatolian Courthouse, the very place where perpetrators should be punished,” it said in a statement on X.
“Women can be shot with firearms even inside courthouses.”
Turkiye does not collate official figures on femicides, leaving the job to women’s organizations which collect data on murders and other suspicious deaths from press reports.
Figures compiled by We Will Stop Femicides show that in 2025, 294 women were killed by men and 297 women were found dead under suspicious circumstances.
Of that number, just over one in three — or 35 percent — were killed by their husbands, while 57 percent were killed with firearms.
Rights groups say the deaths classed as suspicious or as suicide in Turkiye has risen since Ankara withdrew from an international convention on violence against women in 2021.
That agreement, dubbed the Istanbul Convention, requires countries to set up laws aimed at preventing and prosecuting violence against women.
Judge shot at Istanbul court by her prosecutor ex-husband
https://arab.news/ptndz
Judge shot at Istanbul court by her prosecutor ex-husband
- The incident took place inside a courthouse on the Asian side of Istanbul
- Kahraman received first aid at the scene before being rushed to hospital
Tourism on hold as Middle East war casts uncertainty
- Cancelled flights, postponed trips and a great deal of uncertainty: the war in the Middle East is casting a long shadow over the tourism outlook for the region
PARIS: Cancelled flights, postponed trips and a great deal of uncertainty: the war in the Middle East is casting a long shadow over the tourism outlook for a region that has become a prized destination for travelers worldwide.
“My last group of tourists left three days ago, and all the other groups planned for March have been canceled,” said Nazih Rawashdeh, a tour guide near Irbid, in northern Jordan.
“This is the start of the high season here. It’s catastrophic,” he told AFP.
“And yet there’s no problem in Jordan. It’s perfectly safe.”
Across the world, tour operators are scrambling to find solutions for clients stranded in the region or who had trips planned there.
“The priority is getting those already there back home,” said Alain Capestan, president of the French tour operator Comptoir des Voyages.
He said however that the war was also affecting customers who have traveled to other parts of the world, as the Gulf region is home to several major aviation hubs — Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.
Like other companies, the German tour operators surveyed by AFP — Alltours, Dertour, Schauinsland-Reisen — announced they would cover the cost of extra nights for clients stranded in the Middle East. They also canceled trips to the UAE and Oman until at least March 7.
Swiss operator MSC Cruises, which has a ship stranded in Dubai, told AFP on Thursday it was sending five charter flights to airlift nearly 1,000 passengers.
The firm said it expected the passengers to be out of the region by Saturday, without specifying the destinations of the flights or the nationalities of the holidaymakers.
The British travel industry association ABTA said agencies “would not be sending customers to the region for as long as the British Foreign Office advises against all non-essential travel.”
Customers whose holidays were canceled in recent days will be able to rebook or receive a refund, it said.
- Economic impact -
The war is disrupting a sector that had been booming in the region.
According to UN Tourism, in 2025 around 100 million tourists visited the Middle East — nearly seven percent of all international tourists recorded worldwide. That figure had grown three percent year-on-year and 39 percent compared to the pre-pandemic period.
Depending on the destination, Europeans make up a large share of visitors, followed by tourists from South Asia, the Americas, and other Middle Eastern countries.
For example, nearby markets accounted for 26 percent of total visitors to Dubai in 2025, according to its Ministry of Tourism and Economy.
Against this backdrop analysts Oxford Economics warns that “a decline in tourist flows to the region will deal a more severe economic blow than in the past, as tourism’s share of GDP has grown, as has employment in the sector.”
“We estimate inbound arrivals to the Middle East could decline 11-27 percent year-on-year in 2026 due to the conflict, compared to our December forecast that projected 13 percent growth,” said Director of Global Forecasting Helen McDermott.
That would translate, according to the firm, to between 23 and 38 million fewer international visitors compared to the prior scenario, and a loss of $34 to $56 billion in tourist spending.
After Covid and then the conflict in Gaza, tourists had been coming back, said Rawashdeh, the Jordanian tour guide.
“For the past six months, people working in tourism here had hope. And now there’s a war. This is going to be terrible for the economy,” he said.
“We’ve definitely noticed an understandable slowdown in new bookings from our partners right now, but we fully expect that to bounce back as soon as things settle down and travelers feel more confident,” said Ibrahim Mohamed, marketing director of Middle East Travel Alliance, which offers direct tours to American and British operators.
He remains optimistic: “The Middle East has always been an incredibly resilient market, and demand always bounces back fast once stability returns.”
