Wedding photographer breaks groom's nose after learning that the bride is 15 years old

Wedding photographer Onur Albayrak from the eastern Turkish province of Malatya has recently beaten up a groom. He learned that the bride-to-be was only 15 years old, which resulted in a fight and him breaking the groom’s nose. The local media outlets report that he tried to stop the wedding, and the photographer has received a lot of support since this happened.

Hürriyet Daily News writes that Albayrak was hired to photograph the wedding at Malatya’s Turgut Özal Nature Park on 5 July. He reportedly noticed that the bride-to-be didn’t look like an adult, so he asked the groom about her age. After learning that she was only 15 years old, the photographer reportedly reacted fiercely. The two men started fighting and the photographer reportedly broke the groom’s nose.

In a Facebook post Albayrak wrote two days after the incident, he confirmed what had happened at the wedding:

“Yes, the reports are correct. A child bride means child abuse, and no force in the world can make me photograph a child as a bride.”

As Hürriyet Daily News reports, the groom had come to Albayrak’s studio two weeks before and he was alone. Therefore, the photographer saw the bride for the first time on the wedding day:

“She’s a child, and I felt her fear because she was trembling. The groom attacked me as I was leaving.”

According to Turkish law, the minimum age to get married is 18. However, some sources claim that as much as one-third of the women in Turkey get married under the age of 18. Although child marriage is punishable by jail, there’s a discrepancy in the legal framework, which is why so many child marriages still exist.

Ever since he tried to justify his move in the Facebook post, Albayrak has received plenty of positive comments. People have called him a hero, supporting him and saying that the world needs more people like him. Even though I am strongly against violence, I’m also against child marriages. Just like Albayrak, I think it’s a form of child abuse, and it’s definitely something we should fight against.

[via Hürriyet Daily News]

Daniel T Jester

Dig a little deeper. The news report said that the photographer fought back after being assaulted by the groom when he refused to shoot the wedding and tried to leave. That’s how his nose got broken.
- Kryn Sporry
  
  Honestly, even if the photographer started and broke the groom’s nose on the first strike I would have applauded him.
- bergstrom
  
  break the guys nose anyway and his jaw too. Maybe a leg as well.
stewart norton

Bit misleading if I read it right he says “the groom attacked me as he was leaving”, so it looks like he punched the guy in self defense and not because the girl is 15 ? Would he have hit the guy if he had left peacefully?
- Renlish
  
  Photographer was leaving because the bride was under age. The groom tried to stop him leaving. Photographer wasn’t having a bar of it.
  - Jeffrey Friedl
    
    This seems to be a very good example of how a headline can twist things. It seems from the text that the photographer’s morals meant he wouldn’t photograph the wedding and so chose to simply leave, leaving the “wedding” (child abduction) to happen without the benefit of a professional photographer to record it. The headline, on the other hand, implied that the photographer proactively jumped in physically to protect the child. It seems that what the headline implies didn’t actually happen, and that’s the problem.
    
    Imagine you see a news article with the headline “Off-duty nurse arrested after administering CPR to a crash victim who later died”. What image of society does this conjure up in your mind? Now, later on find burred in the text that the nurse in question was allegedly drunk and had run a red light and allegedly caused the accident. Do you see how the headline created a perception that didn’t match reality?
Franco Kailsan

I take the photographer’s side!
Wojciech Kanclerski

In all it’s beauty this world is also sick and twisted 😤
Higgs Singlet

If the girl wed this groom unwillingly due to tradition, religion, family pressure etc, etc. Should castrate that groom
- Juan Fernandez
  
  While not condoning the marriage at all, it seems to me that castrating the groom for a cultural / tradition / etc. misses the point entirely. It is the whole context that is complicit, not just the groom.