Amid the disappearance of an 8-year-old girl in southeastern Turkey’s Diyarbakır province, public figures have raised awareness of the large number of missing children across the country.
Narin Güran had been missing since August 21, with a search ongoing for more than two weeks without any signs of her whereabouts. The case caught the attention of many Turkish public figures, including celebrities, journalists and human rights activists, who urged authorities to use all their resources to find the young girl immediately.
Despite the public attention, on August 29 authorities imposed a media blackout on the case. Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) Chairman Ebubekir Şahin urged all media outlets to respect the ban.
The media blackout caused further backlash, with the public demanding an answer as to why it was imposed in the first place, leading to the launch of a social media campaign with the hashtag “Narin Güran Nerede” (Where is Narin Güran).
Many social media users, including lawyers and journalists, said the media ban protected Güran’s family members, who are close to the government and are known in the region to be a very conservative family. Güran’s uncle was detained on September 2 and later arrested on charges of voluntary manslaughter after the little girl’s DNA was found in his car, among other evidence implicating his involvement in the disappearance.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy and human rights activist Sezgin Tanrıkulu, called on authorities to at least give public updates on the case every so often for the sake of transparency.
Unfortunately, Güran’s body was discovered in a river near her family’s village on Monday morning.
This is not the first time a young child’s disappearance has caused outrage in Turkey. According to Burhanettin Bulut, an MP from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), although child disappearances are worryingly common, there is no official data to determine exactly how many children are missing.
“The last time the Turkish Statistical Institute published a report on missing children was in 2016,” he said. “A study at the time revealed that between the years 2008 and 2016, 104,531 children had gone missing without a trace. However, we have no idea as to how many of those children were found or data on the number of children who have gone missing since then.”
Bulut submitted a parliamentary motion addressing the Ministry of Family and Social Affairs demanding a thorough investigation into missing child cases in the country. He also demanded to know why the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), which is a government agency tasked with producing official statistics, has not conducted any sort of research into the matter since 2016.
The Directorate of Communications Center for Countering Disinformation denied TurkStat had ever released any such data on missing children. In a statement the directorate said these were just the number of cases that were reported to law enforcement and that many of the children had been found. They called the claims “baseless” and urged the public to ignore such claims.
However, journalists such as Fatih Altaylı are adamant that children’s safety is a concern in Turkey and that there are thousands who are missing. For years human rights activists have argued that children are not adequately protected by the law and that those people who harm children are not punished with lengthy prison sentences.
One of the most publicized cases of missing children occurred after the February, 6 2023 earthquakes, which affected 11 provinces in the country’s south and southeast. According to opposition politicians and activists, hundreds of families are still searching for children who went missing after being rescued from the rubble or who were buried without proper identification. Once again, the government issued a statement turning a blind eye to the families’ plight and saying, “There were no missing children in the aftermath of the earthquakes.”
Another case involves 4-year-old Leyla Aydemir, who went missing in 2018. The young girl’s body was found 18 days later with indications of sexual assault.
