Turgut Çapan, an officer at Turgut Özal University, which was closed by a KHK (Decree-Law), was abducted by unidentified individuals in Ankara Yenimahalle on March 31, 2017. This was announced to the public by his wife via a video recording. Despite days passing since the incident, no news has been received from Turgut Çapan. According to information from his family and relatives, the investigative authorities did not carry out any work to shed light on the incident. Camera recordings from the area where Turgut Çapan disappeared showed a black Transporter model vehicle moving immediately after Çapan and following him.
At that time, the Ankara Governorship and the Ministry of Interior had not even responded to press inquiries or persistent follow-ups by members of parliament regarding the matter.
Other official sources that BBC Turkish spoke to at the time stated that an investigation was underway, but the findings were not sufficient for an official statement. Mustafa Yeneroğlu, Chairman of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Human Rights Commission and AKP Istanbul Deputy, told BBC Turkish that they would follow up on the abduction claims, but the data obtained so far was insufficient. According to reports in BBC Turkish and Artı Gerçek, Turgut Çapan’s wife, Ülkü Çapan, was the closest follower of the incident. All the details Çapan recounted were reflected in the media at the time as follows:

DISAPPEARED SUDDENLY
Turgut Çapan worked as an officer at Turgut Özal University, which was closed after the July 15 coup attempt. He became unemployed when the university closed.
On the morning of March 31, he left home to go to the barber. They were supposed to return home at noon and go shopping with his wife, Ülkü Çapan. However, he did not return home that day or any other day. His wife was starting to get worried when the doorbell rang. At the door was Çapan’s friend, Önder Asan. He brought very bad news:
Ülkü Çapan was startled and panicked for a moment. She couldn’t be sure. She didn’t believe such a thing could happen. Nevertheless, she closed the door, went to the police station, and filed a missing person report. Guided by the police, she went to hospitals. In her own words, “She went everywhere she could apply.”
SHE ADDRESSED AUTHORITIES IN A VIDEO, REALIZED SHE WAS NOT THE ONLY VICTIM
Çapan, who shared a video on social media a day after his disappearance and called on authorities to find her husband, said, “In that video, I hoped the authorities would help, and the incident would be resolved quickly. But there’s still no news.”
ÖNDER ASAN, WHO REPORTED THE NEWS ON THE DAY THE VIDEO WAS PUBLISHED, WAS ALSO ABDUCTED
On the day the video was published, she learned that Önder Asan, who had told Ülkü Çapan about her husband’s abduction, had also been abducted, and she became completely certain that what happened to her husband was an abduction: “I learned that Önder Asan was also abducted. His wife, Fatma Asan, had posted a message on Twitter. I saw it there.”
From that moment on, a feverish investigation process began. The family worked like detectives, using their own means to examine camera recordings showing the abduction point.
“We tried to look at the shop recordings with our own means. I see my husband passing on an apartment camera. But we cannot see my husband passing on the next camera. At that moment, a minibus with tinted windows, driving in the wrong lane, appears on the screen. My husband disappears where that minibus is. Camera recordings began to be collected under police supervision. The place where the incident occurred is very close to Şentepe, where our house is located.”
“MR. ÖNDER WAS TAKEN OUT OF A TAXI AND ABDUCTED”
“Mr. Önder disappeared on April 1st. With our insistence, the police examined the recordings in Şentepe. In those recordings, Mr. Önder is seen hailing a taxi. Then three vehicles suddenly cut off the taxi. The driver is told, ‘We have no business with you,’ and Mr. Önder is put into a black minibus and taken away. The license plate of that taxi was found at the Şentepe police station. Mobese (city surveillance) recordings need to be examined. I don’t know if they are being examined.”
Ülkü Çapan has the perception that the police are not sufficiently interested in the incident. “They say, ‘We will call you,’ but we are not called.”
Due to the recordings, it is certain that Önder Asan was abducted. However, Ülkü Çapan is experiencing a process that gives her the feeling of being stalled. “I want this part of the incident to be resolved, but we always go back to the beginning. I say there’s a black vehicle in the footage, find its license plate, but no progress is made. We filed another petition with the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the examination of Mobese recordings. I believe that if Önder Asan’s abduction is clarified, the connection to my husband’s abduction will also emerge.”
“I FEAR FOR HIS LIFE”
As days pass, Ülkü Çapan fears for her husband’s life. “My children are disheartened. Both are preparing for exams. One will take the TEOG exam, and the other will take the university entrance exam.”
“I worry that my husband will never return. He was someone who harmed no one. He was not involved in any crime. As a woman, I am doing everything I can. I submitted a written petition to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), sent an email. I applied to the UN. The Turkey branch of Human Rights Watch (HRW) visited our home in Ankara. I am trying every possible way to find my husband.”
WHO COULD HAVE ABDUCTED HIM?
Ülkü Çapan approaches this question cautiously because she states that they have no family problems with anyone: “I cannot say ‘this person did it’ or ‘that person did it.’ We have no problems with anyone. We are not involved in any crime. I don’t know what kind of thinking led to this. My husband is gone. The person who said he was abducted is also gone. But I think the perpetrators are the same people. The disappearance of two people from the same neighborhood cannot be a coincidence.”
“It seems the police believe my husband ran away rather than being abducted. Things are moving slowly. I describe a black minibus, but they ask questions like ‘who was his friend, where was he?’ I think they are trying to convince me that he ran away. If he had run away, why would I raise such a fuss? My husband would never leave us without a word.”
Despite all their efforts, Çapan’s relatives and lawyers, seeing that state authorities made no statements, shared the matter with the international human rights association Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST). AST filed an application with the United Nations regarding Turgut Çapan.
Following the application, a development occurred. The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances, evaluating the matter, requested urgent information from state authorities regarding Turgut Çapan’s abduction.
Following these developments, news was published in pro-Recep Tayyip Erdoğan government media outlets, especially Sabah newspaper. The claim was made that Çapan, from whom his relatives had received no news for a long time, was abroad. However, his relatives have received no news about Çapan to date.
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE COULD NOT RESPOND
Meanwhile, HDP deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, who was live on the Main News Bulletin presented by Evren Özalkuş, had said the following:
“Families applied to the UN and the ECHR regarding this. The fate of these individuals was questioned by these two institutions, but the Ministry of Justice could not provide any answers. The files presented by the Ministry of Justice as answers were completely empty. However, when I visited the families’ homes, local citizens told me that these individuals were abducted from their homes by the police. When a working group was proposed to be formed regarding the abducted persons, AKP Human Rights Investigation Commission Chairman Hakan Çavuşoğlu rejected it. What was done was definitely a very serious human rights violation.
Families were desperately searching for their missing loved ones for 6 months and could not get any answers from anyone. And suddenly, news came, and they announced that 4 of them were at the Ankara Police Department. Lawyers went to Ankara. Lawyers were not allowed to meet with those in custody. Lawyers were not allowed to meet, but because the families exerted great pressure, the prosecutor’s office allowed them to meet with their spouses. However, normal procedures are not being followed. Satisfactory answers cannot be obtained regarding health checks. A health examination is very important because there are allegations of torture concerning these individuals. And there are still missing persons. Everyone was silent, but after 6 months, one day these people were brought to light, claiming they were found during a GBT (General Information Scan) search. There is no serious official explanation about what happened to these people or where they were for 6 months. The human rights of these people were violated for 6 months. If these people are not in the hands of the authorities, are they in the hands of a mafia, whose hands are they in? They need to find this out. The descriptions of the abductors, everything is clear. They were caught on security cameras, and this incident happened in Turkey.”

SOURCES:

-https://zamanaustralia.com/2017/04/ulku-capan-kacirilma-olayinin-detaylarini-anlatti-2/

https://www.sabah.com.tr/gundem/2017/06/09/kacirildi-denilen-fetoculer-firarda

https://abcgazetesi.com/hdp-kocaeli-milletvekili-gergerlioglu-kayip-olaylarinin-ic-yuzunu-tele1e-anlatti-30909