A Salem Court in Diyarbakır
Arthur Miller’s famous play The Crucible tells the story of 29 people tried and executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, between 1692 and 1693.
In fact, what Miller narrated was not the witch trials in Salem, but the McCarthyist communist witch hunt that began in the United States in the late 1940s.
If there were a courageous Arthur Miller in Turkey today, he would write about another trial resembling the witch courts of Salem 400 years ago: the Narin Case that began in Diyarbakır.
This requires courage because this case has turned into a mass lynching ritual against a supposedly demonic family, provoked by fake news and allegations that have almost entirely collapsed.
The statements made recently in a broadcast by a widely watched journalist were a summary of the demonic, witch-family image created by this enormous pile of misinformation:
If there is such a thing as the Devil and if you were to give him flesh and bone, he would run away from Tavşantepe village, my brother. That bunch of unknown creatures there is mocking 80 million, 85 million Turkish citizens. Clearly, they have politicians behind them. Clearly, they have taken some powerful AKP figures in the region with them. But the social pressure is so high that even those powerful AKP figures are not enough to cover up the issue in the region—at least as far as we can see for now. The Prosecutor dug deeper and looked at HTS records. Where was whose phone at the time of the murder, or the time thought to be the moment of the murder? They have sort of solved that everything happened in Narin’s house. Because the accused uncle keeps entering and exiting the house. He entered and exited three times. All the aunts, uncles, everyone keeps going in and out, and clearly something was happening inside the house at that time. They went even further and checked water consumption. And at that hour, around the time of the incident, a significant increase in water usage was noticed. During that period. And clearly, a cleaning had been done in the house. They also found that cleaning agents capable of removing DNA traces were used. What we are seeing is that this family is actually a highly conscious pack of killers. They know how to destroy evidence, how to anonymize their crime, how to remove DNA… They know everything. The family behaves like an organized criminal gang. You know what I really think? We are facing such a demonic village that I wish such a place didn’t exist on the map. You are a mother for God’s sake, a mother. And that mother is an accomplice to this crime, my brother. They say they’re protecting them in prison, doing something for their safety. What safety? They have lost all humanity.
He is angry enough to advocate for the village to be wiped off the map and the family members not to be protected in prison, but he hasn’t even bothered to read the 12-page indictment.
The indictment does not claim that all family members were entering and exiting the house; only three family members are alleged to have been there.
The claims that carpets were washed or water consumption increased are lies.
The allegation that a family whose members have been detained repeatedly, whose three members are on trial for life, and six more are in prison is being protected by the government is entirely baseless. Why would a family accused of murdering a little girl be protected? What special quality could this rural family possibly have? There is not even an answer to such a simple question.
In fact, ministers did not even offer their condolences to the family. The Ministry of Family is represented as a complainant in the trial.
The Ministry’s lawyer, despite the lack of any evidence, said: “It is considered that the murder occurred due to an incident within the family. The defendants should be punished at the upper limit. No child has ever been left this alone by their closest relatives. Therefore, all of Turkey has become Narin’s family,” and asked defendants about the most absurd allegations.
So what is the reason for this collective lynching?
Of course, the allegations that have been circulating in the media for months and have almost entirely collapsed or been disproven.
Let’s look at a few:
It was claimed that a gas station attendant saw Narin’s body wrapped in a blanket on the front seat of Salim Güran’s car and handed over the camera footage to the Gendarmerie. The attendant turned out to be a fake account; the station did not exist, and there was no camera footage.
While Narin was missing, a slipper was found. When the mother said “the slipper does not belong to Narin,” she was accused of trying to obstruct her daughter’s discovery. When Narin was found, her slippers came out of the same sack she had been placed in.
It was claimed that the carpets in Narin’s home were washed to destroy evidence. However, the autopsy established that the little girl was manually strangled. So there could be no evidence on the carpets. The indictment shows that all carpets and blankets in the house were examined and no evidence was found.
For days it was said that the “Family Council” ordered all villagers to switch from smartphones to keypad phones, and the media reported on the “mafia-like silence” of the demonic family. The indictment revealed that the Gendarmerie had collected the smartphones and distributed keypad phones itself.
It was claimed that the Qur’an-course imam was involved and that sexual videos were found on his phone; this was disproven.
It was claimed that family members used “burner” phone lines; this was denied.
It was claimed that a family member working at the State Waterworks increased the creek’s water flow so the body would decompose faster; false.
It was said the house had cameras and recordings were deleted; the cameras were found to have been installed after the incident.
It was claimed that recordings of supposed secret family meetings were examined; nothing was found.
It was said that Narin was actually Salim’s biological daughter. The indictment includes a DNA report confirming Narin’s biological parents.
It was claimed that Narin’s DNA was found on the front seat and steering wheel of Salim’s car; it was actually found on the back seat.
Claims that the village was a Hezbollah village, a guard village, a tribal village were false. Claims that ammunition was found were also disproven.
A supposed audio message in which Salim asked his 15-year-old worker R.A. “Ramazan, is the girl dead or alive?” was circulated for days as the recording that solved the murder. This was completely false.
In the last court session, the original Kurdish recording was listened to. Not only were the words “girl” or “dead” not present, but even the phrase tiştek te was debated—whether it meant “something of yours” or “sprinkler.”
In this witch hunt, ideological divides have disappeared; the government and DEM Party stand united.
Even the defendants’ detailed torture allegations in court are met with applause on social media: “Good, they deserve it, well done Gendarmerie.” When journalists report that mother Yüksel Güran cried in court saying, “Hang me, but don’t insult my honor, why does no one listen to us?” commenters respond with insults, the mildest being “stop the theatrics, you never loved Narin anyway.”
Bar associations and human rights groups that normally react immediately to “allegations of Gendarmerie torture against Kurdish villagers” now ask cold, bureaucratic questions like “Where is the evidence? Have you filed your application?”—simply because they have taken sides in the case based on prejudice.
There is a murder, and months later—after the indictment and after three days of hearings—still the only piece of evidence is a so-called conflicting HTS base-station result, a method no one fully understands, placing the mother, uncle, brother, and neighbor Nevzat at home when Narin disappeared.
And the only evidence of what they supposedly did inside the house is the third statement of Nevzat, the man who confessed to burying the body in the creek. His first two statements were based on entirely different scenarios.
The first murder claim is this: the uncle and the mother were having sexual relations; Narin saw them, and the uncle killed her.
According to this scenario, the 20-year-old brother was also at home while his mother and uncle were having sexual relations. But when Narin saw it, the uncle killed her. Not the brother—her seeing her mother and uncle supposedly dishonors only her, not him.
The second claim is that the brother committed the murder, because Narin saw him in a homosexual relationship, incest, or with a dog. Or there was an accident. The family members then supposedly took a vow of silence to protect him. At the end of the day the brother, mother, and uncle are going toward life sentences, yet for some reason they do not break their silence.
The third claim is the strangest: the family is hiding something so terrible that three people choose to destroy their lives to keep it.
But the supposedly demonic and calculating family patriarch, Salim, after the murder, calls their neighbor—whom he has been in conflict with over a vehicle sale—and confesses the relationship that supposedly caused him to murder Narin, and then informs him about the murder. Despite having dozens of family members, he assigns the task of disposing of the body to this neighbor.
And all of this supposedly happens within 15 minutes, according to the camera footage.
These are the murder scenarios that all of Turkey has accepted without question.
And the witness is a man who immediately agreed to dispose of the body of an 8-year-old girl, put her in a sack, tied the sack with the string from her school bag, placed it by the creek, weighted it down with a 20-kilogram stone, and then went to buy cheese for his aunt.
Moreover, he confessed not because his conscience troubled him, but because his car was seen on the creek-side security cameras.
Those who question whether he could be the murderer are accused of protecting the family, being paid by them, or siding with the government. This cold-blooded potential killer is being defended by millions.
Even the torture of all family members and their tearful statements do not change this powerful public conviction.
The crowd is waiting for the hammer to fall. That’s why they cannot tolerate even a defense. Gülben Ergen even demanded that the names of the lawyers defending the suspects be made public.
Fortunately, the presiding judge is fair and listens to the claims, not joining the lynch.
New camera footage from the Gendarmerie outpost tower was submitted to the court. Information about how and by whom the conflicting HTS result was created will arrive at the next hearing.
But at this point, even if the family turns out not to be witches, the crowd will not be satisfied.
Yes, this is happening in Diyarbakır in 2024, not in Salem in 1692.
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