https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19493/turkey-missing-children
The newspaper Cumhuriyet reported on February 23 that a doctor from Ankara, who has been volunteering to help find missing children since the first day of the earthquake, claimed that the number of missing children was approaching 1,000.
The fatwa stated that it is not right to treat adopted children like one’s own children and that “accordingly, the relationship between the adopter and the adopted child does not create a barrier to marriage.”
“[I]t is reported that unaccompanied children are not handed over to authorized state institutions, but to people who say that the children are relatives, tariqats [radical Islamist groups] or organ mafia.” — Association of Children and Women First, once.org.tr, February 17, 2023.
“The Ministry of Family and Social Policies must first determine the identity of the children…. It is unacceptable to deliver these children to third parties, individuals, institutions, or associations other than the Ministry. Adoption and foster family institutions should also be done lawfully in line with the Ministry’s rigorous and meticulous investigations.” — Association of Children and Women First, once.org.tr, February 17, 2023.
“The basic rule in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is ‘follow the best interests of the child.'” — Hediye Gökçe Baykal, attorney at the Association of Children and Women First, to Gatestone, March 9, 2023.
When multiple earthquakes first struck Turkey on February 6, the death toll, according to the Turkish government after a month, reached 48,448. Unofficial sources estimate that the real number is much higher. Around 200,000 people were still waiting to be rescued from under buildings that had collapsed, according to a prediction from early February by geophysical engineer Professor Ovgun Ahmet Ercan.