Legal proceedings against a Turkish man accused of stabbing and strangling his lover and then trying to rape her when she passed out have begun with him claiming he was the victim despite the fact that she almost died.

The young woman, identified as Cagla Cicekci, 22, was stabbed in the stomach and strangled until she passed out, and only escaped when she woke up and allegedly found her ex-boyfriend trying to pull off her tracksuit bottoms, blaming her for what was about to happen.

The man, who had been drinking heavily, was shouting that she had cheated on him as justification for what he was doing.

She said: “I was in the kitchen, and he came up to me and put his hands on my throat. I then saw that he had a knife in his hand.

“When I came round I was lying on the sofa and he was trying to pull off my tracksuit bottoms. He didn’t succeed. He was saying ‘I love you and you betrayed me, I love you so much’.”

She said that when he failed to pull off her trousers, she managed to get to her feet and throw herself out of the hall window to escape te attack, which happened on 9th December last year.

After throwing herself out of the hall window she was found by her flatmate who was returning home and who called the police.

By the time medics arrived, she was unconscious and was taken to hospital in the city of Zonguldak in the Turkish Black Sea province of the same name.

Her alleged attacker, who prosecutors have identified as her estranged boyfriend Ufuk Ozel, 40, was arrested and is now appearing in court on charges of ‘deliberate attempted murder’ with a prison sentence of up to 17 years.

However, the proceedings started with him also filing a counterclaim against her for ‘intentional injury’ and ‘insult’ at the Eregli High Criminal Court.

He claimed that she had actually attacked him and injured him with a knife, and then lied about it afterwards, something his alleged victim denies, saying that she had not even had a knife in her hand.

In a statement handed to the court by prosecutors, she said: “I remember the knife and blood in his hands. He was crying. I don’t remember anything else.

“I had a horrible time. My mental state is really bad at the moment. I stayed in the hospital for a week after the attack and when I was discharged, I tried to get my old life back to normal but I just couldn’t, I’m just really suffering psychologically.

“I cannot stay alone at home. I constantly have nightmares and panic attacks at night. I still remember that moment when I saw the scars on my body.”

She said the one thing that she hopes for now is that he will get the punishment he deserves and she can find some closure, saying that no woman should have to go through what she went through on that night.

The case continues.