Turkish Justice Minister Announces Resolution of Six Cold‑Case Murder Files

Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced that the six unsolved murder cases from 2005‑2016 have been fully investigated and solved. The investigations, carried out by the Ministry of Justice’s Faili Meçhul Suçları Araştırma Daire Başkanlığı in coordination with the Interior Ministry, the Presidency and other agencies, employed modern forensic techniques such as DNA matching, high‑throughput sequencing (HTS) and technical analyses, as well as renewed witness statements.

The cases involve the killings of Ali Sarıoğlu (Samsun), Esra Aşık (Balıkesir), Gültekin Yıldırım (Istanbul‑Bayrampaşa), Mehmet Ali Türkmen (Denizli), Selbi Uyğur (Hatay) and Yusuf Sayaner (Istanbul‑Fatih). New evidence led to the arrest and detention of one suspect in Balıkesir, two in Denizli, one in Bayrampaşa, one in Fatih and the identification of Uyğur’s remains through DNA testing of bones recovered during excavations. Gürlek stressed that “no murder will be forgotten and no perpetrator will escape justice,” and said the state will continue to mobilise all resources to bring closure to such long‑standing crimes.