Officials from the Presidential Press and Public Relations Office called the father of a missing girl, Türkan Ay, and informed him that the president is also looking into the issue. Gül ordered Kayseri Governor Mevlüt Bilici to increase search efforts, İbrahim Ay, the father of the missing girl, said.
The Ay family and the Tekin family, whose two children are also missing, have expressed their discontent with how the media has handled the news. Hayriye Güroğlu, the grandmother of two of the missing children, denied allegations that her son Hamza Tekin had gone to jail. “They spread the news that my son was in jail nine years ago. That is not true. My son has not even gone to the police station for doing anything bad.”
 This photo of Türkan Ay, missing since Sept. 20, was taken in 2008 at the school she attended. |
Ay also said allegations spread through the media have harmed his family. “News claiming that my wife is connected to a contractor who is allegedly involved in the children going missing is a total lie. They spread lies about our family and even include my wife's sister in their discussions. They should stop acting like paparazzi and help us find our children.”
Four police officers who are working on finding the children visited the Tekin and Ay families. They told the families to be more patient and said they are meticulously working on the matter. The aunt of missing siblings Ahmet and Dilruba Tekin said their patience is running out. “We have no more tears to shed,” she said. Saying he is patiently waiting for his children to come home, the siblings' father, Hamza Tekin, said he believes someone abducted his children.
Ay also thanked the officials and police teams for their search efforts and said his family is still hopeful their child will be found. Storeowners in Talas lent their support by hanging photos of the children in their display windows.
Additionally, Kayseri Police Chief Arif Akkale said the police are following every lead but the leads received so far have turned up nothing.
