Cem Garipoğlu, who is suspected in the murder and decapitation of his girlfriend Münevver Karabulut, surrendered to the police early on Thursday, drawing huge interest from the media. With Garipoğlu's surrender, the shroud of mist surrounding the Karabulut murder has begun to disappear. Examining the factors that could have urged Garipoğlu to surrender, analysts say it is the massive amount of media attention the case has received that brought the investigation into the murder to this point and prevented it from being forgotten.Star's Mehmet Altan questions the factors that have led to the capture of Garipoğlu, who is sure to have been protected very carefully for the past seven months, in a country such as Turkey, where the most brutal murders are forgotten very quickly. “Is it the suffering of a mother and father, whose mental health was severely damaged? Is it the perseverance of İstanbul Police Chief Hüseyin Çapkın? Is it the social conscience whose patience has been tried due to the assumption that if you are wealthy, you can commit a murder? Undoubtedly, all these factors have a role in the suspect surrendering to the police seven months after the murder. But if the media had not shown so much interest in this murder and prevented it from being forgotten, the investigation into this murder could not have come to this point,” contends Altan.
Milliyet's Derya Sazak dwells on the importance of the media follow-up of the Karabulut murder, saying that if the media had not showed such interest in the incident, Garipoğlu could have still been on the run today since he is the nephew of a wealthy businessman, Hayyam Garipoğlu, and has the financial means to lead a fugitive's life. Nevertheless, Sazak also thinks the media should engage in self-criticism over its coverage of the incident, since the victim was a youth, and be more careful in carrying every detail about the incident in their headlines.
Radikal's İsmet Berkan focuses on another point regarding the murder and says he wonders how someone whose picture was printed in the newspapers every day was able to evade police for 197 days.
“We can all see that it is impossible for such a person not to die of hunger, let alone escape police, without anyone's help. I think the prosecutors will investigate how a 17-year-old teenager managed to evade police for 197 days. It seems the İstanbul police's recent conclusion that Cem was not abroad but in İstanbul has put much pressure on the Garipoğlu family. This pressure worked, and the family handed Cem over to the police. This was what Cem's family, his father and mother, first and foremost, should have done in the first place. The murder was committed brutally, but trying to hide the suspect and keeping this on hold for 197 days increased the level of brutality and has turned the murder into a mass murder,” Berkan says.
Sabah's Yavuz Donat says the Turkish public, which has been eagerly following the Karabulut murder through the media, is relieved by Cem Garipoğlu's surrender to the police and that the rest is now the job of the judiciary. But, Donat says the public has another expectation regarding this murder: namely, how Garipoğlu eluded capture for 197 days. “Who helped him? Who helped him escape and hide? Garipoğlu's capture was important, but finding answers to these questions is just as important,” Donat suggests.
