24.04.2026 19:53
A photo of Mustafa Turkay Sonel, son of Tuncay Sonel, the former Governor of Tunceli who was arrested as part of the Gulistan Doku investigation, holding a weapon has emerged. It had been reported in the press that Mustafa Turkay Sonel stated in his testimony, 'I have no interest in guns, I do not own any firearms.'
A photo of Mustafa Türkay Sonel, son of former Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel arrested as part of the Gülistan Doku investigation, emerged showing him in camouflage and armed.
TAKEN DURING AN INSTITUTIONAL VISIT
It was learned that the photo was taken during a visit by the arrested former Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel to an institution in the city. The photo shows Mustafa Türkay Sonel wearing protective gear and carrying a weapon.
"I HAVE NO INTEREST IN WEAPONS" HE HAD SAID
In his testimony, Mustafa Türkay Sonel had stated, "I do not have a firearm. A high school friend, the son of the then MIT director, taught me the sport of Airsoft. Since this sport is among my hobbies, there are many photos and videos on my phone of us playing with the beads (fluorescent, red, green, white) used in this sport in the backyard of the house. In fact, there are invoices for all the weapons used in this sport. We would order the weapons used in this sport from a yellow website named Izmir Av Market Airsoft. We would also order the beads for these weapons from that site. The beads used in these weapons are called 'B.B' and because they are expensive, we would pick them up from the ground to reuse them later," as reported in the press.
On the other hand, it was learned that within the scope of the case file, a specialized team from the General Command of Gendarmerie came to the city and examined areas where Gülistan Doku may have been buried.
CASE RETRIEVED AFTER 6 YEARS
With the June 2024 decree of the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), Ebru Cansu, one of Turkey's 3 female chief prosecutors assigned to Tunceli, requested the formation of a special team within the scope of the investigation regarding university student Gülistan Doku, who has been missing since January 5, 2020. All KGYS footage and PTS records in the city from the day before and the day Doku disappeared were recollected. A total of 70 KGYS recordings, 67 of which are main arteries, including new images of Gülistan, along with an additional 700 hours of footage from security cameras, were added to the case file. In the investigation, simultaneous operations were conducted in 7 provinces on April 14 on suspicion of murder.
15 SUSPECTS DETAINED, 1 SUSPECT AT LARGE
In the first operation, 13 people, including Doku's ex-boyfriend Zeinal Abakarov and Mustafa Türkay Sonel, son of former Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel, were detained. Within the scope of the investigation, a red notice was requested for the 14th suspect abroad, Umut Altaş, for whom an arrest warrant was issued. In the second operation on April 17, former Governor Tuncay Sonel and Çağdaş Özdemir, who served as both the former Chief Physician of the State Hospital and then Provincial Health Director, were detained on allegations that Gülistan's hospital records were deleted.
12 SUSPECTS ARRESTED INCLUDING THE GOVERNOR AND HIS SON
After their procedures, among the suspects referred to the courthouse, Tuncay Sonel's son Mustafa Türkay Sonel and Erdoğan Elaldı, a former employee of the Special Provincial Administration who was found to have had last contact with Gülistan Doku through narrowed cell tower analysis, were arrested for 'Intentional killing'. Gülistan Doku's ex-boyfriend Zeinal Abarakov, Abarakov's father Engin Yücer and mother Cemile Yücer, fugitive suspect Umut Altaş's father Celal Altaş and mother Nurşen Arıkan, expelled police officer Gökhan Ertok, and Şükrü Eroğlu, who was Tuncay Sonel's close bodyguard at the time, were arrested for 'Concealing and destroying crime evidence'. Ferhat Güven was arrested for 'Robbery' due to his actions against Gülistan Doku's sister Aygül Doku and sent to prison. Çağdaş Özdemir, former Chief Physician of Tunceli State Hospital, who was detained in Bursa on allegations of deleting Gülistan Doku's hospital records and brought to Tunceli Courthouse, was arrested for 'Falsifying, destroying, or concealing official documents' by the Criminal Judgeship of Peace after his procedures. Tuncay Sonel was arrested for 'Destroying, concealing, or altering crime evidence', 'Blocking, corrupting, destroying, or altering data in an information system', 'Unlawfully providing or obtaining personal data', and 'Falsifying, destroying, or concealing official documents'. Suspects U.A., along with S.G. and S.Ö., who were responsible for cameras at Munzur University, were released under judicial control.