The Murder of Narin Güran

Disappearance and discovery

Narin Güran disappeared on August 21, 2024, from the rural Tavşantepe neighborhood of Diyarbakır's Bağlar district. A large search followed. Her body was recovered on September 8, 2024, after 19 days.

The discovery turned the missing-person investigation into a homicide case. Public attention was intense, but the criminal case still required courts to determine which allegations were proved and what legal role each defendant had played. This file follows those judicial distinctions rather than repeating every claim that circulated during the search.

The four principal defendants

Prosecutors brought a homicide case against Narin's mother Yüksel Güran, her brother Enes Güran, her uncle Salim Güran and neighbor Nevzat Bahtiyar. The prosecution theory was that the three family members participated jointly in killing Narin and that Bahtiyar was also involved in the events surrounding the crime.

Bahtiyar admitted that he had concealed Narin's body but denied killing her. That distinction became the central issue in his part of the case. The first trial treated his conduct differently from the conduct attributed to the three relatives, and later appellate review changed that legal classification again.

December 2024 verdict

On December 28, 2024, Diyarbakır's 8th High Criminal Court sentenced Yüksel Güran, Enes Güran and Salim Güran each to aggravated life imprisonment for jointly committing the intentional murder of a child.

The same court sentenced Nevzat Bahtiyar to four years and six months for destroying, concealing or altering criminal evidence. The judgment did not at that stage hold him criminally responsible as a participant in the murder itself.

Regional appeal and Court of Cassation review

On May 26, 2025, the Diyarbakır Regional Court of Appeal found the four sentences lawful and rejected the appeals before it. Further review then went to Turkey's Court of Cassation.

In a decision whose reasoning was published on December 30, 2025, the 1st Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation upheld the aggravated life sentences imposed on Yüksel, Enes and Salim Güran. Those three convictions therefore remained intact.

The chamber reached a different conclusion about Bahtiyar. It overturned his four-year-six-month evidence-concealment sentence, holding that his conduct needed to be assessed under the offence of aiding the aggravated intentional murder of a child. That ruling did not itself sentence him as a principal murderer; it sent his portion of the case back for a new trial under a more serious legal theory.

Bahtiyar's 2026 retrial

Bahtiyar was retried before the Diyarbakır 8th High Criminal Court. On April 16, 2026, the court convicted him of aiding aggravated intentional murder and sentenced him to 17 years in prison. The court's detailed reasoned judgment was issued on May 1, 2026.

The prosecution did not accept that classification as the final word. On May 15, 2026, the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office appealed to the Court of Cassation, arguing that Bahtiyar should be treated not merely as an aider but as a joint principal in the murder and should receive the correspondingly more severe punishment.

By July 18, 2026, reporting on the cassation process said the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation had recommended affirming the 17-year sentence and sent the file to the 1st Criminal Chamber. That recommendation is not itself a final appellate judgment.

What is final and what is not

The criminal responsibility of Yüksel Güran, Enes Güran and Salim Güran for the jointly committed murder was upheld by the Court of Cassation, and their aggravated life sentences remain the established outcome reported by the court's 2025 reasoning.

Bahtiyar's legal position is narrower and still procedurally distinct. He has a 17-year conviction for aiding aggravated intentional murder after retrial, but the prosecution appealed seeking to have him classified as a joint principal. Until that appeal is finally decided, this file does not describe the 17-year sentence as the unquestionable end of his case.

Timeline

Current status

The case is partially adjudicated with one appellate issue still active. The aggravated life convictions of Yüksel Güran, Enes Güran and Salim Güran remain upheld. Nevzat Bahtiyar is serving a 17-year sentence after retrial, while the prosecution's appeal concerning whether he should be treated as a joint principal remains unresolved in the latest reliable reporting reviewed for this file.

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