A Turkish court has arrested the uncle of Narin Güran, an 8-year-old girl who went missing in the Bağlar district of Diyarbakır on August 21, Deutsche Welle (DW) Turkish service reported on Monday.
Local rescue teams continue to search for the child, who disappeared after leaving a Quran course in the rural Tavşantepe neighborhood around 3 p.m. local time.
Narin Güran’s uncle, who is identified only by the initials S.G., had been detained as part of the investigation into the child’s disappearance.
Also the head of the Tavşantepe neighborhood, the uncle was arrested on Monday on charges of murder and deprivation of liberty.
According to DW, S.G. on Monday said in his statement to the Gendarmerie that he learned about Narin’s disappearance after his daughter called him and that he hadn’t seen the girl before she disappeared. He also said he had participated in the efforts to find Narin.
Regarding the discovery of the girl’s DNA in his car, the uncle claimed that she had never been in his car and suggested that the DNA could have come from him occasionally leaving the car windows open in front of his niece’s house.
S.G. also denied the allegation of hostility between him and his brother Arif Güran, Narin’s father, and claimed that he never said, “I will make you suffer so much that you will never forget it for the rest of your life,” as was alleged.
The slow progress in the investigation and the authorities’ failure to find the girl has prompted criticism from opposition politicians.
“Narin has been missing for days in the Bağlar district. … The government, which uses all its resources to monitor the public, is failing to find a missing child. This is unacceptable. We call on the judicial and administrative authorities to do their jobs,” Tuncer Bakırhan, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), said on X on August 25.
📍Amed’in Bağlar ilçesinde 8 yaşındaki Narin Güran günlerdir bulunamıyor. Amed’in her köşesini kameralarla dolduran, iki insan bir araya gelmesin diye tüm gücünü seferber eden iktidarın düştüğü bu aciz durumdan kaynaklı geçen her saat yüreğimiz kanıyor.
📍Güran ailesini…
— Tuncer BAKIRHAN (@tuncerbakirhan) August 25, 2024
Public concern continues to grow, with widespread calls for transparency and urgency in the investigation under the hashtag #NarinGüranNerede (Where is Narin Güran?).
Former police chief Mustafa Okumuş also criticized the authorities after they failed to discover the girl’s whereabouts despite days of interrogating her uncle. Okumuş argued that instead of arresting the suspect, they should have kept him under surveillance to find Narin.
“What if she [Narin] isn’t dead and in a place where the uncle has hidden her that no one knows? Narin has been without food and water for three days [during S.G.’s interrogation]. Whether the uncle is arrested or released, she could die of thirst [because S.G.] won’t be able to go back there, fearing he’s being watched,” he said.
The Diyarbakır 5th Criminal Court of Peace imposed a media blackout on the case on August 29 to ensure that the ongoing investigation is not compromised.