They went missing in the February 6 earthquakes: What happened to the missing children?

No news has yet been received from the children who went missing in the earthquakes that occurred on February 6, 2023. In the 730 days that have passed, the search for justice continues for families who have received no news, dead or alive, about their children. 

The report published by BBC Turkish meticulously laid out all the details regarding the children who went missing in the February 6 earthquakes. 

The relevant report is as follows: 

"Nurşen Kısa was with her sister Burçin, her brother-in-law Oğuz, and her nephews Ege and Emir on February 5, 2023.

So the children wouldn't get cold, they had filled basins with the snow falling outside and made a snowman in the house.

At least 53,537 people lost their lives in Turkey in the earthquakes that occurred the next day.

The eight-story Nilüfer Apartment building where the Gültekin family lived in the Odabaşı neighborhood of Antakya turned into "a two-meter pile of rubble."

The bodies of Burçin-Oğuz Gültekin and their 10-year-old son Ege were recovered from that rubble.

However, no trace was found of four-year-old Emir.

Nurşen Kısa, while telling BBC Turkish about that day, says they arrived at the rubble an hour and a half after the earthquake and were there the whole time during the 15-day search and rescue efforts:

"We waited by the heavy machinery even while the rubble was being cleared. In case we could find any trace, a piece, clothing. But there is nothing. Neither in the rubble nor among the bodies."

Nurşen Kısa says of her nephew, "He was very sweet, a child like a little chick."

She explains that when the search and rescue efforts ended, she filed a missing person report at the police station, but three months later, she was called by the courthouse to ask, "Is Emir staying with the mother's side or the father's side?"

She reports that when she said Emir was missing, she received the answer, "We have nothing on this."

The police station responded to this confusion by saying that police officers who came on temporary duty might have lost the petition.

Kısa says, "Then a process started from scratch. We gave Emir's photos and the information about where they lived again."

In the same process, Burçin Gültekin's grave was also opened, and DNA was taken to compare with samples from people in the cemetery for the unclaimed.

However, no results came from this either.

"My phone didn't ring even once, we always went"

Nurşen Kısa explains that during this process, she went to Children's Homes (Sevgi Evleri) in seven provinces with her own means and showed Emir's photo to the authorities, but did not get any results.

While saying that no one from public institutions showed her the way, she says, "My phone didn't ring even once, we always went."

She even explains that some public institutions still call the family to ask, "How is Emir? Does he have any needs? Who is he staying with?"

She says with astonishment, "Last week they called and asked, 'We are doing mass circumcision, had Emir been circumcised?', can you imagine?"

Kısa also rebels against the judicial process regarding the building where more than 50 people died, saying, "We cannot even seek justice for our deceased."

In the Nilüfer Apartment case, contractor Murat Fuatoğlu and Building Inspection Specialist Mehmet Haşim Eraslan were released from prison in December 2024.

Thus, there were no detained defendants left in the case.

The Hatay Governorship had not granted permission for an investigation into public officials during the trial process.

It was 1.5 years after the earthquake that the court rejected this decision and issued an investigation permit.

How many children are missing?

Different numbers are being voiced regarding how many people are missing after the earthquake.

The Ministry of Interior announced three months after the earthquake that missing person applications had been made for 297 people, 86 of whom were children.

Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced as of November 2024 that 75 earthquake survivors were missing.

Yerlikaya said 30 of these were children.

According to the statement, 50 of the missing are Turkish and 25 are foreign. It is estimated that most of the foreigners are Syrian.

CHP Hatay deputy Nermin Yıldırım Kara says they have a list of 140 people. 38 of these are children.

However, the names of at least two more children are mentioned in different sources examined by BBC Turkish.

CHP's Kara says she also shared the list with Minister Yerlikaya, but did not receive a response.

So why is the difference between the numbers so large?

According to Sema Güleç, spokesperson for the February 6 Earthquake Victims Platform, the ministry does not accept people who have been removed from the population registry through a declaration of absence as missing.

Declaration of absence means that people who have not been heard from for a long time are recorded as dead upon the application of their families.

"We would have been satisfied even if we found a bone, nothing came out"

In fact, the stories of the missing children are always similar.

Umay Kısaçam was only six months old when the earthquake happened. She remained under the rubble in the Renaissance Residence in Antakya with her mother Kadriye Pınar and her father. Neither her body nor her mother's has been found yet.

Her aunt Ayşe Ambarcıoğlu conveys that the authorities said the bodies could not be found due to the explosion and fire in the rubble:

"There wasn't a proper search anyway, they made a very serious effort to clear the rubble immediately, and we didn't have the strength."

She expresses her hopelessness about the bodies being found with these words:

"Two years have already passed. After this point, will they bring them, hand us a piece of bone, and say, 'This is your relative'?"

Two-year-old Sercan Hasan Koşar was also caught in the earthquake with his parents at the Renaissance Residence. The family's bodies could not be reached; only a piece of father Serkan Koşar's back could be found.

Six-year-old twins İpek and Duru Koyuncu were in the İlke Apartment in Antakya.

Their uncle Hüseyin Caner Yurdakul says they searched the building, which caught fire, down to the shelter.

However, he explains that he could not find his sister Ayşenur, his brother-in-law Semih, and his nieces. "We would have been satisfied even if we found a bone, nothing came out," he says.

Five-year-old Asel Kılıç was also in the same apartment during the earthquake.

Her grandfather Salahattin Kılıç says that no one has contacted him regarding his son Mustafa and daughter-in-law Hasret in the last year.

There is still no news from İrem Karaca, who was 12 years old at the time of the earthquake.

Father Fatih Karaca, who lost his mother, mother-in-law, wife, and three children in the earthquake, says, "At first, the police were calling every month, asking, 'Is there any news about your daughter?' Now even that is gone. There is no one calling or asking. There is no one saying, 'How are you?'"

Could unaccompanied children have been abducted?

After the February 6 earthquakes, some children were found alive, but they had no companions with them.

Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş had said in January 2024 that there were no missing children among the unaccompanied children.

She noted that these children were reunited with their families, taken under state protection, or given to foster families.

Hatice Kapusuz from the Disaster Child Civil Coordination Team, in her assessment to BBC Turkish in February 2024, argued that law enforcement officers to ensure security and social workers to keep records of unaccompanied children were insufficient in the first days.

Kapusuz had said, "This is an area pregnant with trafficking and all kinds of bad scenarios."

Emir Gültekin's aunt Nurşen Kısa does not think the child was abducted.

Recalling that they encountered three unaccompanied children when they arrived at the rubble, she says, "If he were to be abducted, why would my nephew be abducted?"

How is the Ministry of Interior searching for the missing?

The Association for Solidarity with Earthquake Victims and Relatives of the Missing (DEMAK) had requested the establishment of a Research Commission within the Parliament in 2023 and 2024; and for the missing to be searched for in children's homes, elderly care homes, women's shelters, and hospitals.

Their other demands were the performance of exhumations, which means opening and examining the grave in suspicious cases, and re-scanning the rubble.

In past years, motions submitted by opposition parties with the request to establish a commission in Parliament for the missing were rejected by the votes of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

However, in 2024, a commission was established within the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).

Sema Güleç, spokesperson for the February 6 Earthquake Victims Platform, explains that they exchange information by meeting remotely with AFAD officials almost every month.

Güleç conveys that AFAD first scans the bodies with DNA samples taken from the relatives of the missing, and then also takes DNA samples from bodies buried in villages without identification.

In addition, photos of the missing persons are compared with those who lost their lives in the earthquake through the facial recognition system at the police department.

Güleç's 24-year-old architect son is also among the missing.

DEMAK President Selahattin Kaban said that they submitted the list of missing persons in the association's possession to AFAD, but despite five months passing, no response has been given to many families yet.

The Ministry of Interior and AFAD did not return BBC Turkish's interview request until the news was published.

What are the demands of the relatives of the missing?

In the last year, the bodies of two missing people were found.

It turned out that 26-year-old Merve Ateş, one of these people, was buried under the wrong name.

Her older sister İlknur Karaca said in her statements to the press that she wanted a DNA test to be done again.

"There is also the possibility that the body might turn out to be someone else after a few years. I don't want to be devastated once again in this situation," she said."