20 December 2023 , 22:02
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A man in Turkey has been arrested months after his girlfriend fell to her death during a clifftop marriage proposal.
Nizamettin Gursu was arrested five months after his 39-year-old girlfriend, Yesim Demir, plummeted off a cliff in Canakkale, a city in northwestern Turkey, in July. Police revealed there were "signs of a serious argument" at the clifftop sunset spot where the pair went for a picnic the day.
Demir survived the horror 104ft fall but later died of her injuries. Gursu told local media at the time: "We chose the cliffs to have a romantic memory after the proposal. We drank some alcohol. Everything happened at once. She lost her balance and fell down." He has now been arrested after her family filed a criminal complaint, Turkish media reports, claiming that the pair fought after she rejected his proposal and that her engagement ring was found in his pocket, instead of on her finger.
Gursu told police that they had been happily drinking when he went to the car to get more supplies. He said he heard a scream and then discovered, to his horror, that she had vanished. The woman's family now claim she had been planning to break up with him and would not have accepted the proposal.
Yesim Demir with her boyfriend Nizamettin Gursu, before her death (Newsflash)They added that she was terrified of heights and wouldn't have willingly been close enough to the edge of the cliff to fall off accidentally. Police found broken glasses and a broken speaker, signs of a violent struggle, at the scene. Gursu has now been arrested on suspicion of "deliberate homicide."
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According to the Monument Counter, a digital memorial for women killed by violence, at least 380 women in Turkey have been killed by men so far this year, while 383 were killed by men last year. Gursu is being held in custody pending trial.