New developments have emerged six years after the disappearance of Gülistan Doku, a second-year Child Development student at Munzur University. As part of an investigation conducted by the Tunceli Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, 12 people have been detained, including the then governor of Tunceli, Tuncay Sonel, his son Mustafa Türkay Sonel, and the then chief physician of Tunceli State Hospital, Çağdaş Özdemir.

 

Bahar Gültekin Candemir and lawyers from the women’s rights centres of regional bar associations, who travelled to Dersim (Tunceli) to follow the case, also met with the Tunceli Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the details of the investigation. The visiting lawyers assessed the latest developments.

 

POLICY AGAINST IMPUNITY

 

Bahar Gültekin Candemir said recent developments in the Gülistan Doku case show that suspects could have been identified earlier. She said there had always been hope that Gülistan Doku was alive, but that the evidence indicates she was killed.

 

Referring to the cases of Rojin Kabaiş and Rojwelat Kızmaz, she said: “This investigation is very important for all of us and sets a precedent. There is Rojin, there is Rojwelat. This case strengthens our hope that there will no longer be unsolved killings of women.”

 

She stressed that the increasing violence and killings of women cannot be resolved solely through punitive policies and that comprehensive measures addressing root causes are needed.

 

“We must end individual armament. We need to review our education system. We must end the relationship between women and property,” said Bahar Gültekin Candemir and added that recent developments show Turkey moving further away from the rule of law, but said the case provides a degree of hope for justice and that they will continue to follow the process closely.

 

Mihriban Çelik, a lawyer from the Women’s Rights Centre of the Riha (Urfa) Bar Association, said the investigation into Gülistan Doku had not been conducted effectively over the past six years, resulting in a lack of progress. She noted similar patterns in many cases involving women and said they would continue to follow all such cases.

 

‘SHIELD OF IMPUNITY’

 

Jiyan Özkaplan, a lawyer from the Women’s Rights Centre of the Wan Bar Association, said describing the deaths of women and girls in Kurdistan as “suicide” is part of a broader policy. She said a similar narrative had been constructed by state officials in the case of Gülistan Doku.

 

“After six years, it has emerged that this was a murder. There is a confidentiality order on the case file. The evidence and testimonies obtained under this confidentiality show how brutally a woman was killed,” she said.

 

Jiyan Özkaplan argued that the coordinated actions of public officials in Kurdistan stem from a perception of impunity and immunity.

 

She concluded: “What has emerged today is the result of struggle. Gülistan Doku’s family and lawyers never gave up. They consistently said she did not take her own life.”

 

MA / Berivan Altan - Diren Yurtsever