Turkish authorities have reportedly detained Emin Aliyev, a man suspected of killing his 20-year-old cousin, Fatima Karimova, in Tbilisi in what appears to be an ‘honour killing’.

The detention was reported on Saturday by the Azerbaijani news agency Oxu.az, noting that work is currently underway to extradite Aliyev to Georgia. Earlier, a family member of Karimova told OC Media that Aliyev fled to Turkey after the murder.

Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office addressed the case on Monday, noting that it had sent an official note to its Georgian counterpart agency, stating its ‘readiness to provide comprehensive legal assistance and other necessary support within the framework of international legal cooperation in order to ensure a full, thorough, and objective investigation’.

The agency further reiterated that it maintains a ‘principled stance regarding criminal acts committed against the life and health of Azerbaijani citizens […] regardless of whether such cases occur within or outside the country’.

Karimova was found dead by the Georgian police on 26 June in a rented apartment in Tbilisi. News of her killing quickly gained traction on Georgian social media after human rights activist Baia Pataria posted about it on 1 July.

The Georgian Interior Ministry is investigating the case under charges of intentional killing. Its press service did not provide any new details about reports of Aliyev’s arrest in Turkey in response to OC Media’s inquiry on Monday, including information about his possible extradition.

Karimova’s sister Zuleikha Karimova told OC Media that in mid-May, Fatima had left her home in Azerbaijan’s Aghjabadi district for Tbilisi to live with her boyfriend, Kanan Aliyev (no relation to Emin Aliyev). This caused uproar in the family as Fatima was reportedly engaged to another man, Orkhan Hasanov.

When Fatima arrived in Tbilisi, however, her boyfriend reportedly turned on her, tearing up her passport, beating her, and abandoning her at the hotel where they were staying.

‘My sister couldn’t return to Azerbaijan. I offered to send her money, but she said it was impossible because she thought that her passport was damaged and with this document, the passport control officer would not allow her to exit the country’.

At this point, a local woman, Inna Mkrtchyan, found Fatima.

Mkrtchyan told OC Media that Karimova asked her to take her to the Azerbaijani Embassy, but since it was the weekend, she instead took Fatima to a friend’s house. Mkrtchyan added that Karimova had a note with three phone numbers, including her cousin Emin Aliyev’s, who arrived on 3 June ostensibly to rent her an apartment in Tbilisi and help her return to Azerbaijan once tensions in the family eased.

On 26 June, however, Zuleikha Karimova lost contact with her sister and asked Emin Aliyev to check on her. He initially claimed Fatima was fine but refused to let him into her new flat, after which he stopped responding to Zuleikha’s calls.

Later, Zuleikha learned from Mkrtchyan and neighbours that Emin had left the apartment early that morning, raising suspicions.

Zuleikha said that Fatima had been abused by Emin Aliyev, with his behaviour becoming more aggressive when he drank.

In private conversations between the two sisters, which OC Media has viewed, Fatima Karimova wrote that her boyfriend, Kanan Aliyev, was at the same time blackmailing her, threatening that he would send intimate footage to her uncles if she blocked him.

Zuleikha believes their cousin Emin Aliyev found out about these videos, and believed that Fatima had ruined the family’s reputation.

‘Fatima told me that our relatives ordered Emin Aliyev to kill her’, Zuleikha Karimova said, adding that in the last conversation with their uncle Elshan Sultanov, during which she informed him about Fatima’s death, he responded with: ‘it should end with that’.