Click to read the article in Turkish
It has been 17 days since the fate and whereabouts of Munzur University Child Development sophomore Gülistan Doku are not known.
Since her family reported her missing on January 6, the search operations for her are still continuing in Turkey's eastern province of Dersim.
The search operations are conducted by 140 people, including Tunceli Provincial Disaster and Emergency Authority (AFAD) teams, divers from Adıyaman Directorate of Security, underwater search and rescue teams of İstanbul, İzmir and Konya Metropolitan Municipalities, divers from the Kayseri Turquoise Outdoor Sports, Search and Rescue Association and search and rescue teams of Naval Forces and gendarmerie.
Having completed the search operations in the Dinar Brook area, divers are now conducting search operations with underwater cameras in the specified regions on the shores of Uzunçayır Dam Lake.
No traces found
In the search operations of police and gendarmerie conducted with detection dogs and drones in the field, no traces of Doku have been found.
Addressing reporters, Bedriye Doku, the mother of Gülistan Doku, asked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife Emine Erdoğan for help and stated the following in brief:
"Help me. I am a mother, my daughter is the daughter of Turkey. I have been devastated here, I die everyday. Why didn't you arrest that fellow, why did you release him? He deceived my daughter.
"If a child doesn't come home at night, what does her mother do? Help me. If my daughter is dead, I want her dead body. If she is alive, then I want her alive. My daughter is the apple of my eye."
What happened?University student Gülistan Doku did not return to the Credit and Dormitories (KYK) Women's Dormitory on January 5, 2020. As her roommates could not reach her by phone, they got worried and appealed to the Tunceli Provincial Directorate of Security. Her family was also informed about the issue. The family came to Dersim on January 6 and reported Gülistan Doku missing at the security directorate. Consulting her friends and tracking the signals of her mobile phone, police officers also examined the city surveillance cameras and found that she got on the university minibus at the bus stop in Atatürk Neighborhood at 11.29. However, even though the city surveillance cameras along the way were examined, it could not be determined where she got off. The driver of the minibus was identified and summoned to depose. The driver said that the minibus did not enter the university as it was Sunday, the minibus returned empty and he could not remember where Gülistan Doku got off. It is speculated that Doku got off at Sarı Saltuk Bridge in city center, the only bus stop outside the sight of surveillance cameras. |
(EMK/SD)