But even in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city with 10 million people, people can disappear. Sahin, then 31, was last seen as he got off his garbage truck on a busy street. The family believes he was taken by plainclothes police. They say he had leftist leanings, but don't believe he was connected to any particular group. Mrs. Sahin said.
Authorities deny they are holding any of the missing people.
Alaaddin Yuksel, Turkey's police chief, told reporters 10 days ago that most of the people on the missing list were in the mountains of the southeast, among the Kurdish guerrillas. Others were in prison, Yuksel said. Two Saturdays have passed since that statement, with no further explanation from police. One mother, whose son's corpse was found three months after he disappeared in 1995, still comes to the Saturday rally. Emine Ocak told a reporter, her eyes filling with tears.