Honor-Related Violence in the Netherlands

On the evening of Saturday 28 February 1976, the following people were in a living room in Leiden at 10.45 p.m.: four members of the Turkish family B., three other people of Turkish origin and two Dutch mechanics who had been tinkering with the cars belonging to the head of the household and to other persons present. Soon after, two other youths (aged 19 and 15) with a Turkish background dropped by. They were looking to get money from their father who happened to be one of the visitors at the B. family. After a short discussion, the boys were given some money. When they were about to leave, the oldest of the two youths drew a pistol which he used to shoot Memis Tank three times. Tank was one of the other visitors. The mechanics recounted later that the shooter came across as cold-blooded. He was totally unmoved, even when he shot the victim in the head at close range. The rumours soon started to fly, rumours that had actually being doing the rounds for some time among people of Turkish descent in Leiden, also among those who were known to the police. The victim had apparently raped the perpetrator’s sister. Shortly before, this woman had travelled to Turkey, as had her husband. The victim had also tried to murder this man twice before. Apparently, Tank had also had a relationship with Mrs B., the occupant of the premises where Tank had so violently met his end. Van Dijken and Nauta, who published an article on this case in 1978 in the erstwhile police magazine, Algemeen Politieblad, found that, ‘Despite the fact that the evidence, both technical [traces at the crime scene] and tactical [looking for punishable offences and suspects] did not constitute particular problems for the crime itself, there was much confusion about the motives that led to the crime’ (Van Dijken & Nauta, 1978, p. 228).