Turkey has faced numerous complex challenges when it comes to missing persons over the past several decades. From political conflict and human rights issues to natural disasters, tens of thousands of people have gone missing in the country through the years. This article will examine the key causes and scope of Turkey’s missing persons problem.
Background on Missing Persons in Turkey
Enforced disappearances and missing persons have long been a troubling phenomenon in Turkey Major contributing factors include
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Political repression and conflict Disappearances occurred during the 1980 military coup and after the failed 2016 coup attempt, often targeting dissidents.
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Clashes with Kurdish separatists The conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish separatist groups has led to many disappearances
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Government crackdowns: Authorities have allegedly abducted those protesting human rights violations.
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Refugee influx: Millions of Syrian refugees and migrants transiting to Europe has meant more trafficking.
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Natural disasters: Powerful earthquakes frequently hit Turkey, burying victims under rubble.
Estimated Number of Missing Persons
Due to the number of conflicts and crises over several decades, it’s difficult to pin down the exact figure of missing persons in Turkey. However, estimates indicate:
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1,300+ cases of enforced disappearance from 1980-2000 per Amnesty International.
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2,000+ disappeared during 1990s conflict between Turkey & Kurdish separatists.
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5,000+ Kurds reported missing from 1994-1998 per Human Rights Watch.
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6,000+ people missing after 1999 earthquake that killed 17,000 people.
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312,000+ asylum seekers on Turkish soil as of early 2022 according to the UNHCR.
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43,000+ people missing after the devastating earthquakes in February 2023.
So the total number of missing persons in Turkey since the 1980s likely surpasses 60,000+ by conservative estimates.
Key Groups of Missing Persons in Turkey
The major groups of missing people in Turkey include:
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Government dissidents: Journalists, opposition leaders, human rights activists critical of the regime.
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Ethnic minorities: Especially Kurds and Armenians involved in separatist groups.
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Refugees & migrants: Mass influxes from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and African nations.
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Human trafficking victims: People trafficked through Turkey to Europe for labor.
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Soldiers and rebels: Those lost in clashes between state forces and insurgents.
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Natural disaster victims: Mainly from catastrophic earthquakes over the decades.
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Missing children: Runaways, kidnappings, child brides and improper adoption practices.
Government Efforts on Missing Persons
The Turkish government has taken some steps such as:
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Passing a Missing Persons Law in 2021 to help address the issue.
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Working with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) to use DNA analysis to identify remains.
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Cooperating with the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances.
However, human rights groups say the efforts have been inadequate so far considering the huge scale of the problem. Families of the missing say investigations rarely lead to prosecutions or accountability.
The 2023 Turkey-Syria Earthquake and Missing Persons
On February 6, 2023, powerful 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, causing widespread devastation. As of March 2023, the combined death toll surpassed 50,000 people across both countries.
In Turkey specifically, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority stated that over 43,000 people were still missing after the quakes as of mid-February 2023.
The International Commission of Missing Persons (ICMP) quickly offered assistance to Turkish authorities to help identify remains using DNA analysis. However, the huge number of missing people buried under mountains of rubble means accounting for the dead and missing could take months or years.
Ongoing issues like clashes with Kurdish separatists and refugee influxes coupled with recurrent earthquakes mean many more people are likely to go missing or unidentified in the future. Turkey will require expanded efforts and international assistance to properly handle and account for its missing persons.
2011: Erdogan awakens families’ hopes
In 2011, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then Prime Minister, met these activists and raised the hopes of their families. Those calling for an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes believe that the investigations were botched in the name of the “fight against terrorism”. But despite its desire to join the European Union, expressed once again on the sidelines of the recent NATO summit, Turkey has never ratified the International Convention against Enforced Disappearances, which came into force in 2010.
On 25 August 2018, for their 700th gathering, the activists were in turn accused by the state of collusion with “terrorist groups”. Their rallies were brutally dispersed and banned for more than four years. But last February, the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled that the demonstrators’ rights had been violated. The Saturday Mothers immediately returned to Galatasaray Square. And on 26 May, 14 demonstrators were acquitted by the criminal court on charges of “illegal assembly”.
Nevertheless, the government continues to prevent demonstrations. As recently as July 8, a lawyer representing the families was arrested as he was explaining to the security forces that their action was contrary to court rulings. “Impunity is the message being sent out,” concludes Eren Keskin, a lawyer and long-standing human rights activist who, with her association IHD, has supported these rallies from the outset.
2016: the return of enforced disappearances
Keskin has seen these practices return. Enforced disappearances in Turkey are not just a thing of the past, she tells Justice Info. There has even been a sharp upsurge in cases since the failed coup of July 15, 2016, to which the authorities responded with a wave of mass arrests. And the prophecy of former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu has been borne out: in 2015, he expressed fears of a “resurgence of white Toros”, the local version of the Renault 12, which once symbolised the death squads of Turkeys paramilitary forces and these unexplained disappearances. The vehicles have been modernised. Now there are fears of a “black Transporter”.
In a May 2020 report entitled “Enforced Disappearances in Turkey, an Open Secret”, the “Solidarity with Others” organisation documented at least 25 cases since 2016. “On numerous occasions, armed men identifying themselves as police officers have forced victims into a van, often a black Volkswagen Transporter with tinted windows,” reports the Brussels-based NGO founded by exiled members of Fethullah Gülens brotherhood, accused of conspiring against Turkey. “Some of them reappeared months later, after having been tortured, while others never returned home,” the report states. This is the case of teacher Sunay Elmas, kidnapped in Ankara in January 2016. And Ayhan Oran, an agent of the Turkish intelligence services, who disappeared in November of the same year. Most of them were former civil servants close to Gülen, “purged” by the regime. And those who eventually resurface sometimes find themselves accused of crimes they confessed to during their secret detention.
Faruk Gergerlioglu, a doctor and staunch defender of human rights, is one of the few MPs to be urging that light be shed on recent cases. Despite relentless political pressure and the threat of a prison sentence, where he already spent three months in 2021, he was re-elected last May on the ticket of the YSP (Green Left Party), the pro-Kurdish left, and he continues to question Ankara. “We have come across many cases of abductions and enforced disappearances in Turkey over the past seven years after the state of emergency was declared [following the failed coup in July 2016],” he explained in an interview at the beginning of July. “Thousands of cases in the 1990s have not been resolved, and the same incidents began to recur during the state of emergency [maintained until July 2018]. People were clandestinely abducted in other countries by the MIT (Turkish intelligence services) and forcibly brought to Turkey.”
“Citizens of this country have been abducted and tortured while being held illegally in the same place for months on end,” continues Gergerlioglu. “How do we know this? Some of these people have spoken about it in court after their release, they have told their relatives and their lawyers, in letters they sent from prison, so we know that these cases are violations of rights. We have identified 35 examples. It is clear that this is a common and indisputable practice.”
Vanished Abroad: US Woman Missing in Turkey
FAQ
How many people are still missing from the Turkey earthquake?
How many people lost their houses in Turkey?
How many people really died in the Turkey earthquake?
How many people are missing in the USA?
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Year
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Number of missing persons
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2022
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546,568
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2021
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521,705
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2020
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543,018
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2019
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609,275
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