Asliye Ayaz, 8, and her cousin Zeynep Varış, 13, set out on Friday to buy books after receiving their first semester report cards and did not return home. While their families and officials were concerned that they might have been kidnapped, Asliye was found on Tuesday on a river bank and Zeynep was found in a nearby creek the following day.
Newspapers reported on Thursday that the cousins drowned due to rising water levels as they were trying to cross a bridge since they did not have enough money to take a bus, which would have cost TL 1.5 for both girls.
Dismissing the claims that appeared in Turkish dailies, Zeynep’s elder brother Mehmet Can Varış said they were slanderous. “If they did not have the money, they would have come to us and asked for it. Their not having enough money for the bus is out of the question. They might have wanted to go home on foot because the weather was nice [that day],” he added.
In addition, a Bingöl resident said he saw two girls trying to cross the bridge and had warned them against it. “I tried to prevent them. They came back, and I walked away. I did not see them later,” he said.
The bodies of both girls were buried in Bingöl after autopsies were carried out at Malatya Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK). The autopsy report on Asliye showed that her organs were not missing and there was no sign of bruising before her death. The ATK officials reported that she had died due to loss of blood which may have happened after she was dragged along in the river. No official statements were made regarding the results of Zeynep’s autopsy.
After the girls’ bodies were found, the families said they were in great pain. “I want to tell other parents to be careful about their children,” Asliye’s father, Hakkı Ayaz, said, adding that they cannot blame anybody for their loss.
