Third Week Of April: You can kill someone, but you cannot erase them

Weekly Turkey Report: Third Week Of April – You can kill someone, but you cannot erase them

Executive Summary:  

• New details have emerged in the investigation into the disappearance six years ago of Gülistan Doku, a university student in Tunceli (Dersim). A confidential witness has alleged that Doku was raped, became pregnant, and was subsequently shot in the head and killed by the Governer’s son and the Governer used his power to cover up the crime.
• A student at Ayser Çalık Secondary School in Kahramanmaraş opened fire on two classrooms using his father’s weapon. Ten students and one teacher were killed; twenty others were wounded. The attacker, who reportedly had been struggling with issues related to his sexual identity, was stabbed in the leg but died from blood loss after being denied medical attention and not transferred to hospital.
• A midnight ‘anti-corruption’ operation was carried out targeting Ataşehir Municipality. As part of an investigation led by the Istanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, 18 people were detained — including Ataşehir Mayor Onursal Adıgüzel.  Arrest warrants had been issued for 21 people in total.

• Settriko Tekstil, a major supplier in Turkey’s ready-to-wear sector and a manufacturer for brands including Boyner, DeFacto and LC Waikiki, has filed for bankruptcy amid financial difficulties, with reports confirming it has ceased all operations.

GLARING EXAMPLES OF STATE AND SOCIETAL DECAY

Last week in Turkey saw a series of extraordinary events illustrating the depth of rot in both the state apparatus and social fabric. In a functioning democracy, any one of these would have been enough to bring down the government. In Turkey, they were met with fleeting outrage before disappearing from the news cycle. They also laid bare, once again, a society that has grown accustomed to the worship of state power — and its abuse. 

A RAPE AND MURDER COVERED UP BY THE STATE 

New details have emerged in the investigation into the disappearance six years ago of Gülistan Doku, a university student in Tunceli (Dersim). A confidential witness has alleged that Doku was raped, became pregnant, and was subsequently shot in the head and killed. According to the testimony, her body was buried by the bodyguard and a village guard (korucu) of Tuncay Sonel, who was the Governor of Tunceli at the time.

The Interior Ministry has confirmed that an investigation has been opened against former Governor Sonel on the orders of Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi, and that an inspector has been assigned to the case. Sonel has since been detained.

According to the allegations, the sequence of events was as follows: Governor Sonel arranged for his son to have a private room at a state-run Youth Centre. His son, a drug user, allegedly raped Gülistan Doku in that room after she refused to take drugs. He then shot her in the head near the Sarı Saltuk Viaduct and had her secretly buried in a village in the Pertek district. The governor’s protection officer assisted the perpetrator.

The full machinery of the state was then deployed to erase any trace of the crime. The governor met with Doku’s family and took her SIM card, then had a police IT specialist crack its password and delete all messages. Around $10,000 was spent on destroying evidence — paid from the provincial governorship’s budget. Knowing where the body was buried, the governor deliberately directed law enforcement to wrong locations, resulting in months of fruitless searches. The police chief at the time, despite having access to all camera footage and intelligence data, insisted on searching a reservoir rather than the actual burial site.

Hospital records documenting Doku’s assault were deleted by the hospital’s chief physician — who was subsequently awarded the Health Ministry’s ‘Doctor of the Year’ prize. The governor appointed him as Provincial Director of Health in recognition of his ‘successful service.’

The governor’s son, emboldened by the state-sanctioned cover-up, continued his life without interruption — driving a BMW 420, going on luxury holidays, and attending parties involving drug use. The governor himself was appointed trustee (kayyım) mayor of Tunceli and continued to sign off on numerous public tenders.

SCHOOL MASSACRE — KAHRAMANMARAŞ 

A student at Ayser Çalık Secondary School in Kahramanmaraş opened fire on two classrooms using his father’s weapon. Ten students and one teacher were killed; twenty others were wounded. The attacker, who reportedly had been struggling with issues related to his sexual identity, was stabbed in the leg but died from blood loss after being denied medical attention and not transferred to hospital. It subsequently emerged that the attacker’s father had been dismissed from his civil service post on corruption charges but was reinstated after the 15 July 2016 coup attempt.

The day before, a gunman opened fire at a high school in Şanlıurfa, wounding sixteen people before taking his own life. The attacker, identified as Ömer Ket, had posted warnings on social media in advance, writing: ‘There will be new massacres — you, headmaster, will be the first to go.’

NEW OPERATION AGAINST CHP — ATAŞEHİR 

A midnight ‘anti-corruption’ operation was carried out targeting Ataşehir Municipality. As part of an investigation led by the Istanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, 18 people were detained — including Ataşehir Mayor Onursal Adıgüzel, Deputy Mayors Oğuz Kaya and Orhan Aydoğdu, the Director of Financial Affairs Mürteza Kutluk, and the Chief of Staff Alpay Arslan. Arrest warrants had been issued for 21 people in total.

Separately, the Interior Ministry granted permission for an investigation into Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş over allegations that municipal vehicles were used at an election rally in Karabük in 2023. The decision document itself noted that no evidence had been found indicating Yavaş had given any relevant instruction — making it notable that the case rests on the assumption that such use ‘could not have occurred without his knowledge.’ 

ERDOĞAN RESPONDS TO NETANYAHU

Speaking at the AKP parliamentary group meeting, President Erdoğan hit back at Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu over a post made on social media. Reaffirming Turkey’s sovereign right to pursue its own regional policies, Erdoğan declared: ‘We will continue to call a murderer a murderer,’ sending an unambiguous signal to the international community. He added: ‘No power can point a finger at Turkey or at the President of Turkey.’ 

DEATH OF A DECREE VICTIM — ANKARA

Hasan Balcı was a department head at the Turkish Historical Society (Türk Tarih Kurumu). He was summarily dismissed by emergency decree, imprisoned, tried, and convicted. His two children were also dismissed from their posts and prosecuted. After years of legal proceedings, he was ultimately acquitted — but by then the psychological damage had become irreversible. Unable to bear the weight of what had been done to him, Balcı took his own life in Ankara at the age of 67.

JOURNALIST CONVICTED UNDER DISINFORMATION LAW

Zafer Arapkirli — a columnist for BirGün newspaper and presenter of the Medyaterapi programme — has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison under the disinformation law, the same legislation officials had promised would not be applied to journalists.

CONGRESSIONAL SCRUTINY OF HALKBANK DEAL 

A settlement agreement reached in March 2026 between the United States and Halkbank — under which the state-owned Turkish bank would close the case without admitting guilt and without paying any fine — has triggered a new political controversy in Washington. Democratic senators have filed a formal request demanding clarification on whether political interference played a role in the agreement, and whether the White House was involved in a process that resulted in a ‘zero penalty’ outcome despite allegations of sanctions violations amounting to approximately $20 billion.

ECONOMIC DETERIORATION CONTINUES

According to the latest report by the Istanbul Planning Agency (İBB İPA), 44.2% of job seekers in Istanbul do not believe they will find employment in the near future. Data from March also show that Istanbul residents have shifted into significant austerity mode on basic expenditure categories including dining out and clothing.

Settriko Tekstil, a major supplier in Turkey’s ready-to-wear sector and a manufacturer for brands including Boyner, DeFacto and LC Waikiki, has filed for bankruptcy amid financial difficulties, with reports confirming it has ceased all operations. 

The IMF World Economic Outlook report flagged the impact of Middle East conflicts on commodity markets, inflation expectations, and financial conditions. Turkey’s economy is projected to grow by 3.4% this year and 3.5% next year.

Following a revision to Turkey’s sovereign credit outlook, Fitch Ratings has downgraded the outlook on the long-term foreign and local currency ratings of Akbank, Garanti BBVA, İş Bankası, Yapı Kredi, and nine other foreign-capital Turkish banks from positive to stable.