The body of Rojin Kabaiş, a university student who had been missing for more than two weeks, was found on the shore of Lake Van on Tuesday. The 21-year-old girl had last been seen on 27 September when she left Seyyid Fehim Arvasi Girls' Dormitory on the university campus after having dinner. Her roommates found her mobile phone and several personal belongings on the shore of Lake Van.

Rojin Kabaiş had been brought from Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) to Van by her father two days before her disappearance. She studied education and lived in a dormitory. According to her father, Rojin moved to Van with great hope and had no enemies: “The night she disappeared, she called her mother and said that she was buying a few things at the market and would return to the dormitory.” The family believes that suicide is out of the question in the case of their daughter’s death.

Rojin Kabaiş's body was brought to Amed after an autopsy at Van Forensic Medicine Institution (ATK). Rojin’s family was accompanied by Van Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayors Neslihan Şedal and Abdullah Zeydan, and members of the Peoples' Democracy and Equality Party (DEM Party).

The young woman was laid to rest at the Yeniköy Cemetery in the central Bağlar district earlier today. The funeral was attended by DEM Party co-mayors of Amed Metropolitan and district municipalities, members of the Free Women’s Movement (TJA), Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and hundreds of people.

The Kabaiş family is receiving condolence visits at the Abdurrahman Enç Condolence House.

A large number of women, including members of women's organisations, co-mayors of municipalities, DEM Party Women's Assembly Spokesperson Halide Türkoğlu, politician Gültan Kışanak and many others staged a silent march behind a banner reading ‘Femicides are political and ideological’.

Speaking in front of the condolence house after the march, Berfin Polat, a member of Rosa Women's Association, said, “Today we are here for the women who were murdered, disappeared and found dead under suspicious circumstances, remembering them in the person of Rojin.”

Berfin Polat said, “All our hard-won rights are being taken away by perceptions such as “reform” and “innovation”. We know how impunity policies and trials invite this dark scene. We have no other choice but to fight against this. We will continue to raise our voice and objections on the streets. We promise that we will continue the struggle.”

Van Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Neslihan Şedal said, “We will find the murderers of Narin and Rojin. They politically decide about our lives, and when we object to this, they murder us, isolate us and put us in prison. Today, thousands of women are with Rojin's family. We make a promise here. Our struggle will continue until this case is solved.”