Serpil Unvar lost her son Ferhat on February 19, 2020. A right -wing terrorist killed him and eight other people in Hanau. Five years after the crime, a mother struggles against fear.
Ferhat Unvar was only 22 years old. He often met with friends in the “Arena Bar”, a restaurant on the ground floor of a residential building in Hanau-Kesselstadt. So also on the evening of February 19. In the kiosk, which bordered on the bar, a man shoots unvarely around 10 p.m. With him in the kiosk, Gökhan Gültekin and Mercedes Kierpacz as well as in the area of the Said Nesar Hashemi and Hamza Kurtović are shot.
On February 19, 2020, a right -wing extremist in Hanau murdered nine people from racist motifs.
At 9:50 p.m. he opened the fire at the Hanauer Heumarkt with a firearm and killed Kaloyan Velkov,, Fatih Saraçoğlu and Sedat Gürbüz. The 43-year-old man fled his car to Hanau-Kesselstadt. There he shot around 10 p.m. Vili Viorel Păunwho had followed him in the car from the hayarkt, in a parking space. A few minutes later he stormed the “Arena Bar & Cafe”. There he shot Gökhan Gültekin, Mercedes Kierpacz and Ferhat Unvar in the kiosk. Said Nesar Hashemi and Hamza Kurtović he killed in the adjacent bar.
Then he drove back to his parents’ house, also in Hanau-Kesselstadt. There he killed his mother first, then himself. Read more details about the attack here.
Serpil Unvar cannot talk about the crime even after five years. She would go back into the situation too much, she says. She would be too confronted with the fact that a racist killed her son Ferhat in Hanau. Nevertheless, she talks to T-Online about how it is to lose a child in an attack and about the question: What are you afraid of, Ms. Unvar?
Serpil unvar: “Since February 19, I am no longer afraid of myself. There is no longer a private life for me. I live my life now for others. Although I am never alone, I am very tired for young people. Sometimes I don’t know how to keep going. Ferhat paid with his life. He is no longer there, so I have no other option than to continue. From me, and this part is no longer there.
I used to be afraid of men. I know what it’s like to be threatened by a man. I know what it means to part with a man as a woman. We are threatened and go to life. Many women cannot divorce because they do not receive sufficient support. You have to continue to live in danger. I have experienced this myself for 19 years. It was not easy. I was not afraid of the divorce, but of it. For my divorce I had to stop contact with friends and family. Otherwise I would not have made it. Not every woman can do it. This is no different in Germany than in Turkey. We are not taken seriously until we are dead. Current laws do not protect us, this shows the high number of female.
Today I am no longer afraid of myself. But I’m afraid for my daughter because I know what it’s like to lose a child. It is not always a right -wing extremist who kills our children, but it’s almost always a man.
Ferhat said: “We are only dead when we forget us.” The worst thing about death is that people think that we forget them. I will not allow forgetting. We fight for that.
We forget because we cannot constantly remember bad experiences. But that often makes it worse. I can’t run away from pain and memories. No matter where I go, they come with me. Others look away and forget because they think they don’t affect the problems. We lack social cohesion, and that scares me.
Nevertheless, I believe in the good in people. When the perpetrator’s father was on my doorstep, I thought he was a harmless old man. I talked nicely with him, I didn’t know who he was. Only later did I notice what he was capable of. He is an accomplice. He wants to participate in our lives. It was not afraid or fear of death that I had in front of him. It was psychological terror. He broke us all. And the traces of it remain. But I didn’t think about pulling away from Hanau for a second. Here in the apartment everything reminds me of Ferhat. Everything is still as before. His room, his clothes. Ferhat continues to live with me.
