Turkey's missing children - the case of Narin

"Petite", "sensitive", "fragile". This is how one can translate Narin's name into English. The case of eight-year-old Narin has been the main topic in the Turkish media for weeks, and has also played on Greek media.

The girl was reported missing and on September 8 her body was found. The case shocked the entire country, while there were countless related publications on social media as well.

The small village of Narin, Tavsadepe in southeastern Turkey, has just 550 residents. And none of them seem willing to talk about what happened to the girl. Several members of the girl's family are suspected and are in custody. According to the medical examiners the girl was strangled – and the Turkish public is convinced that someone in the village must know something – they just refuse to report it.

"Turkey is faced with a complicated case. The perpetrator is protected by the victim's family, as well as by his close social environment", states Halis Doggoz, medical examiner and director of the Research Center for the Protection of Children in Mersini.

There are no adequate preventive measures

Narin is not an isolated case – cases of missing or murdered children arise again and again in Turkey. What angers many Turkish citizens is that since 2016 the authorities have stopped releasing official figures about missing children. According to the latest available data, 104,531 children were declared missing between 2008-2016. To this day, it remains unknown how many more have disappeared in the last eight years – and how many of those who were missing have been found. According to the Center for Children's Rights, here is documentation of at least 64 children having been murdered in Turkey in the last two and a half years, either by strangers or by their relatives – like Narin.

Experts criticize that there is little transparency about the incidents, further pointing out that the preventive measures taken are insufficient. Their request: to systematically collect and publish data on missing children. In fact, a relevant appeal to the Turkish authorities was already made years ago by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

"If they have data and are hiding it, it means they don't want to take responsibility - or they want to prevent the seriousness of the situation from being known. Or it could mean that they don't care about children at all," emphasizes Ezgi Koman from the Center for Children's Rights.

Evaluating the data is necessary so that forensics, social workers, psychologists and police can design more strategies to prevent such incidents, Dokgoz adds. "In order to be able to find a solution and to at least know what we are doing, we need to have the relevant data at our disposal. Right now we don't know anything," the expert points out, also criticizing that he doesn't see any incentive to find an effective solution to the problem.

"Children must know their rights"

Sahin Adakyalioglu, coordinator of the Network of Lawyers for Children's Rights (ÇAÇAV), agrees that there should be an accessible system with the relevant data, as well as measures to be taken to protect children more effectively. The latter includes, for example, the creation of a telephone line, which all children can call, regardless of whether they live in a city or a village. And beyond these, something more fundamental is also needed, according to Antakyalioglou: "An educational system that will teach children their rights".

"From the pre-school stage we have to teach children how to understand and report that someone is forcing them to do something against their will", emphasizes Antakialioglou. "And if we don't get all of that done, then we're going to keep hearing about new incidents like this."