Per Human Rights Association’s (IHD) “Appeal for uncovering the truth behind disappearances in custody and unsolved murders” file published on 05th February 2011 and Yakayder’s book on the subject “Sımsıcaktı Elleri” (How Snug Were Their Hands), 46-year-old İbrahim Gündem was living with his wife and nine children in the Sarıerik Village of Diyarbakır’s Hazro county. He made a living working in his fields. He was often harassed and threatened by village guards and gendarmerie commanders for his refusal to become a village guard.At midnight on 25th September 1991, a large group of gendarmes headed by a First Lieutenant came to his house and took İbrahim Gündem into custody. The following day, for the first of many times, his family asked about his whereabouts at the gendarmerie station and, later, applied to the Diyarbakır Regiment Commander, all to no avail. The Hazro Public Prosecutor’s Office refused to accept the complaint that the family attempted to file on their son’s disappearance. According to the family’s testimony, the family’s village was totally burnt down by official forces in 1996.

None of the family’s many applications to different government bodies, including the Human Rights Minister or the Commander of the Armed Forces yielded any results.

In 2010, Gündem’s mother and many others seeking lost family members marched from İstanbul to Ankara, where they were received by members of the parliament. In 2011, they met with Prime Minister Erdoğan, no official action was taken afterwards.

İbrahim Gündem has not returned home, he has not been heard from again and his bodily remains have not been found.