The family of Gülistan Doku, a young Kurdish woman who went missing on January 5, 2020, said Turkish authorities were no longer searching for her or looking for new leads in the case, the BirGün daily reported.
According to family lawyer Ali Çimen, authorities had not even examined existing evidence that was collected in previous investigations. “It seems that there is no progress in the case, and most of this is due to the authorities not pursuing new leads or investigating existing evidence,” he said.
Social media users commemorated the passage of one thousand days since Doku was last seen. They expressed outrage that the young woman still was not found and that the lead suspect was free.
Gülistan Doku’nun kaybedilmesinin ardından tam bin gün geçti. Türkiye’nin vicdan sahibi insanları olarak sorgulamaya, sormaya devam edelim; #GuelistanDokuNerede #Gülistansız1000Gün pic.twitter.com/6GSRNZYtAc
— FERHAT TUNÇ (@ferhatttunc) September 29, 2022
Doku, 21, went missing in Tunceli, where she was attending university. She was last seen arguing with her boyfriend, Zaynal Abarakov, in front of a bakery. Later, images of her sitting on a bridge over a reservoir emerged, prompting authorities to believe she had died by suicide and police searching the reservoir.
However, there was no sign of Doku’s body, and the family filed a complaint against Abarakov. According to the Tunceli Public Prosecutor’s Office there was no indication that someone had jumped into the reservoir at the time Doku was said to have been seen on the bridge. Doku’s family argued that this was a clear indication that their daughter had not died by suicide and that Abarakov could be responsible for her disappearance.
Doku’s family still believe Abarakov was involved in the disappearance of their daughter and are demanding his immediate arrest.
Justice for Gülistan Doku, a civil society organization that is monitoring her case, believes Abarakov’s stepfather Engin Y., who is also a policeman, is involved in a coverup. Engin Y. was part of the investigation and was the first police officer to report that “an object had dropped into the lake” at the time Doku went missing. Engin Y.’s report informed the course of the investigation and the search of the lake.
Engin Y. is also currently under investigation for sharing confidential information and documents in the case with the press.
According to Doku’s sister, Aygül Doku, her sister and Abarakov had a disagreement the day before she disappeared. Abarakov tried to force Doku into a car, but she managed to get away. Doku’s family is demanding that the authorities conduct a thorough investigation and determine what happened to the young woman.
