Özlem Gültekin’s Family and Erhan Çelik’s Lawyers Issue Joint Statement After Her Death
The death of Özlem Gültekin (Özlem Gültekin), a well-known obstetrician and gynecologist from İzmir who was also a familiar figure among television personalities, continues to draw attention. Gültekin, who died at the age of 48, was laid to rest yesterday in her hometown amid deep mourning.
In recent days, reports have emerged about Gültekin’s health in the period leading up to her death. According to those claims, she had undergone surgery about a week earlier because of a mass in the breast area. On the day of the incident, she reportedly administered an anesthetic to herself after experiencing severe pain. However, as the circumstances surrounding her death have raised questions and a judicial investigation has been launched, the exact cause of death has not yet been established. The final determination is expected to depend on the forensic medicine report.
Following Gültekin’s death, past disagreements between her and television presenter Erhan Çelik (Erhan Çelik), who was reportedly in the process of separating from her, resurfaced in Turkish media and on social media.
Amid the growing coverage, lawyers representing Gültekin’s family and Çelik issued a joint statement. The statement was released by Ahmet Avşar (Ahmet Avşar), Çelik’s lawyer, together with Ali Boran Çelik (Ali Boran Çelik) and Işıl Ay Karataş Tunca (Işıl Ay Karataş Tunca), lawyers representing Gültekin’s family.
The lawyers said in the statement: “Following the death of our daughter, our sister, Erhan Çelik’s former wife and the mother of his six-year-old child, Özlem Gültekin Çelik, we have been following with profound sorrow the inhumane and unconscionable news reports and comments being published. These reports have not even given us the opportunity to mourn and have crossed every human and moral boundary, making it necessary for us to remind everyone of certain facts. First and foremost, it must be known that Özlem Gültekin Çelik and Erhan Çelik were in the final stage of reaching an agreement for an uncontested divorce.”
The statement also highlighted the couple’s six-year-old child, arguing that some reports and analyses were being published without considering the child’s future and psychological well-being. The lawyers said such coverage was becoming increasingly disturbing and unacceptable.
The two sides’ lawyers also addressed the circulation of old photographs and material related to past disagreements between Gültekin and Çelik. “We will never accept attempts to link photographs and content concerning the parties’ previous disagreements to this painful incident today, or to target the father of our child based solely on the phrase ‘suspicious death’ without any objective facts,” the statement said. “We also reject claims, such as reports that certainyy medications were found, which do not correspond to reality in any way.”
The lawyers stressed that the fact that judicial authorities are examining a death does not, by itself, mean that a crime has occurred or that the circumstances are necessarily abnormal. They called for the legal process to be allowed to proceed without unfounded interpretations or premature accusations.
The statement further said: “Such publications do not only harm the living; they are also an obvious disrespect to the memory and dignity of our beloved Özlem.”
The lawyers representing Gültekin’s family and Erhan Çelik also announced that they had jointly begun taking the necessary legal action over the reports and comments being circulated.
They called on media outlets and social media users to stop speculation, portraying individuals as criminals before any wrongdoing has been established, and disregarding the future of a six-year-old child in pursuit of attention and higher views.
The statement concluded with an appeal for the families to be given the opportunity to mourn their loss “in the name of humanity and conscience” and for the media to refrain from exploiting their shared grief.
