Per ruling delivered by the Constitutional Court on 21st April 2016, Birsen Gülünay applied to the Office of Sultanahmet Public Prosecutor and Gayrettepe Anti-Terror Unit in the hope for finding her husband Hasan Gülünay, who had disappeared in 1992 after leaving home for work. As her attempts remained fruitless, she requested that the Human Rights Commissions at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey open an investigation into her husband’s disappearance. The Istanbul Governorship requested information from the Istanbul Police Headquarters. In its reply to the request, which came two years later, the Police Headquarters claimed that Hasan Gülünay had never been taken into custody.

In 2009, the Gülünay family filed a criminal complaint along with 17 families searching justice for their missing relatives. The case was transferred between various prosecutor’s offices due to jurisdiction issues until, eventually, on 24th May 2012 the Public Prosecutor closed the investigation into Hasan’s disappearance due to statute of limitations. The lawyer of the Gülünay family objected to the decision and then applied to the Constitutional Court. In 2016, the Constitutional Court ruled that Gülünay’s right to life had been violated as a result of the authorities’ failure to conduct an effective investigation. However, the Court also made a decision of non-prosecution due to statute of limitations.