Family of missing student Gülistan Doku launches vigil

5 January marks the second anniversary of the disappearance of Gülistan Doku. Born in Amed (tr. Diyarbakır) and 21 years old at the time, the education student from Munzur University disappeared without a trace two years ago in Dersim. To mark the upcoming anniversary of her unsolved disappearance, her family has started a vigil in front of the courthouse in Dersim. Her parents Bedriye and Halit Doku and her sister Aygül Doku are taking part in the initiative with the aim of completely clarifying the fate of the young woman. The Platform for Labour and Democracy supports the cause.

Although the police investigation into the whereabouts of Gülistan Doku is still formally ongoing, this is not enough for her relatives and several organisations, especially women’s initiatives. They consider the investigations to be insufficient. Immediately after Doku’s disappearance, it was feared that she might have been the victim of a violent crime. Only one day before, her ex-boyfriend Zainal Abakarov had tried to force the young woman into his car. Doku resisted and passers-by who observed the incident informed the police. However, the police ruled out the man, whose stepfather is an ex-police officer, as a suspect relatively early on. However, the authorities have no other leads, although almost every area in Dersim is under surveillance 24 hours a day with surveillance cameras and directional microphones. Instead, the investigators speculate on suicide by jumping into the Munzur and persist in this theory despite an independent expert opinion to the contrary.

Abakarov, meanwhile, has gone into hiding and allegedly cannot be found. His stepfather Engin Yücer is under arrest for evading trial on charges of sharing confidential investigation results on online networks, among other things. But the law enforcement authorities cannot or do not want to find him either. In contrast, the struggle of Gülistan Doku’s family to clarify the fate of the student is systematically criminalised by the Turkish authorities. Throughout the past year, vigils and protests for the resumption of the search for Gülistan Doku and the arrest of Abakarov have been violently broken up by the police several times. In addition, the mother and sister of the missing woman were temporarily arrested several times. A case is also pending against the family lawyer Ali Çimen for allegedly violating the secrecy of investigations.

Mother: Bring back my daughter – or at least her bones

At the start of the vigil in front of the Palace of Justice in Dersim, Bedriye Doku condemned the passive approach of the authorities in the case of her missing daughter. “My demand is explicitly addressed to the Minister of Justice of this country: Bring my daughter back to me if she is alive. If she is dead, at least give me her bones. And finally bring the main suspect Zainal Abakarov to justice.”