Gülistan Doku investigation revisits underwater search carried out six years ago

A six-year-old underwater search has returned to the center of the Gülistan Doku investigation after authorities identified discrepancies between divers’ records and official search reports. Doku, a student at Munzur University, disappeared in Tunceli on Jan. 5, 2020.

Video published on social media by journalist Ferit Demir shows police divers from Elazığ arriving in Tunceli and preparing for a search at the Sarısaltuk Viaduct. The footage also shows then-Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel arriving with senior police officials, meeting the search teams and later speaking with Doku’s family.

Doku’s relatives, friends, university lecturers, local residents and journalists were present around the viaduct on the day of the search. The diving teams later began searching Uzunçayır Dam Lake. Earlier searches recovered personal notes and pieces of a prescription said to belong to Doku. Investigators later reported finding scissors believed to be hers in the water, but months of extensive searches failed to locate her.

The investigation was expanded in 2026 by the Erzurum and Tunceli chief prosecutors’ offices. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said records in a divers’ logbook, which he said had been concealed from judicial authorities, did not correspond with the official search reports. He also said investigators had found indications that some of Doku’s belongings may have been placed underwater afterward to create an appearance supporting the possibility of suicide.

Some personnel involved in the 2020 underwater searches were subsequently brought into the investigation. In the fifth phase of an operation, police detained 10 suspects, including divers Gürkan Gürdal, Alaattin Kocamemik and Vahit İlgör. A court jailed Gürdal, while it imposed judicial-control measures on Kocamemik and İlgör.