Hrant Dink, the well known journalist, was the last victim of murder to inspire a mass reaction of sympathy from the Turkish nation. His death was followed by demonstrators wearing placards saying ‘We are Hrant’ to underline their empathy for and sympathy with the man, his grieving family and the cause of the Armenian citizens he represented. Now the nation’s women have taken to the streets wearing similar placards but these say ‘We are Pippa’.

Pippa Bacca was an Italian performance artist who decided to make a public and personal plea for peace in areas of conflict. With her friend Sylvia Moro, they designed wedding dresses and the two women set out as ‘Brides on Tour’ to hitchhike from Milan to Tel Aviv. Leaving Italy on March 8th they proceeded with little trouble through eastern Europe and reached İstanbul at the end of March. Here they decided to take different paths accross the country and meet up again in Beirut. Pippa was in touch daily with family and friends by mobile phone messages. On March 31st these texts abruptly stopped. Her family raised the alarm and her sister and fiancee flew to Turkey.

The Turkish police put a trace on Pippa’s phone’s unique IMEI number and on Friday April 11th they caught truck driver Murat Kabataş after he used it. He confessed to having picked Pippa up just outside the industrial northern town of Gebze and of dumping her naked body in a shallow grave after  having raped and strangled her. As well as her phone the Turkish police found parts of her necklace in the truck cabin and her camera at his house. She had taken photos of all the people who had offered her lifts and the final photo she had taken was of Murat. 

The reaction to the violation and brutal murder of this vibrant thirty three year old has been enormous. The country was both embarassed and mournful. Hurriyet newspaper ran a headline announcing ‘We are ashamed’ and Milliyet had a strapline that said '’Siamo Molto Addolorati'’ -Our pain is enormous. Prime Minister Erdoğan made a personal statement that he was deeply saddened by the murder of such a remarkable peace envoy and expressing gratitude to Pippa’s family who have been hugely benevolent in their press statements towards Turkey and the Turks in general.

Elena Manzoni, Pippa’s mother has led her family through the crisis and has, since the discovery of Pippa’s body late last week, been hugely charitable in all her comments; ‘We can't blame all the Turkish people for this incident. Nobody could have predicted my daughter would encounter such a maniac.’ Her sister, Antonietta Pasqualino, followed her mother’s lead adding that there were ‘bad people everywhere’ and telling interviewers that her sister ‘had been talking about Turkey a lot; she was so impressed.’

The family’s stoicism and their refusal to blame Turks for their daughter’s death combined with the romantic image of the raped bride dying for the cause of international peace has set the natipn’s imagination aflame. İn a country of hopeless romantics, idealists and dreamers Pippa Bacca may well have, in death, found her true spritual home.

The tributes have been fast in coming. On the 14th of April head of Gebze town council, İbrahim Pehlivan, released a statement aying that council representatives would be going to Ankara to offer an official apology on behalf of their town to the İtalian consulate and Pippa’s family. They were also going to consult with the people of Gebze and either raise a group to finish her walk or erect a monument to peace in the town.

On the 15th of April a memorial service was held at the İtalian consulate in Ankara, the women’s groups who attended carried signs saying ‘NO to the rapist violence of men’ and ‘Peace’. Again on the 15th of April Hayrettin Bulan, the head of Şefkat-Der, a group that runs a women’s refuges and works on behalf of abused women, whose HQ is in the city of Konya, said; ‘We have given her the nickname Angel Pippa and we are going to name one of our refuges after her....she is an angel in our eyes and we want to draw the whole world’s attention to her message of peace and the fight against violence towards and the rape of women.’ On the same day thirty women from the Antalya Town Women’s Parliament donned wedding gowns and veils and walked silently and in single file through the main streets of their town carrying banners saying ‘We are all ambassadors of peace’. They demanded that all women be safe and free to walk the streets and were applauded en route.A day later Hurriyet columnist Mehmet Yılmaz wrote a piece calling upon Turkish women to come forward and finish Pippa’s walk and has already sought the support of leading women’s magazine Elele. The magazine’s editor has promised to provide wedding dresses and cover the expenses of the journey. He believes that Pippa should be an inspiration; ‘And, what if were to transform the "peace walk" of Pippa into the "freedom walk" of Turkish women in our country……… Let's get moving. Let's stop just feeling sorry. If we don't take this opportunity to claim to the right for women to travel freely on the streets and the roads of this country now, we never will!’. Pippa’s own family have now flown her body home for burial and are focusing their energy on bringing the now iconic wedding gown back to Milan to be displayed in a memorial exhibition.

As well as bringing out the best in some people the murder has brought out the worst in others. Website forums have been lively with criticism of both Pippa and Turks. An article on www.ynetnews.com, an online Israeli newspaper outlining Pippa’s intentions of finishing her walk in Tel Aviv has rampantly hostile comments following it including; ‘The muslim barbary strikes again against foreigners’ and ‘İt is clearly stated in their scriptures what muslims are forced to do to non muslims. Going to a muslim country means you are putting yourself in a life threatening situation’ as well as ‘Laugh out loud, That’s what you get when trying to make peace with muslims’. Another website (for self confessed skeptics) www.jref.com announced ‘Irony has a new name: Pippa Bacca’, these forum members accuse Pippa of being suicidal, stupid, naive and gullible; ‘Her name, "Bacca," sounds just like the Japanese word "Baka" (idiot/fool). One can only hope news of her death will prevent others from being so foolish’ and ‘I wonder what her mental age was. No 33-year old thinks that all you need is trust, right? But if her mental age really was 33, what went wrong then?’

Both groups that condemn Pippa and the Turks are those who face the future with pessimism, Pippa herself was a determined optimist willing to do more than just write on the ‘walls’ of public webpages. The terrible truth of the story is that like most martyrs for a cause Pippa, through her death may have actually accomplished more for peace than she would have had her walk been completed without incident. Her murder has sent a powerful message about peace, about the continuing struggle of women for personal safety – she became what she was demonstrating about a powerless player caught up in the turmoil and violence of a stronger party. The reaction in Turkey shows these people have the heart and soul to understand her message.