The Karadedeler Incident: Turkey’s Found-Footage Legend

A village in northwest Turkey says something was filming them back in January 1989. The Karadedeler Olayı (Karadedeler Incident, Karadedeler Olayı in Turkish) is the claim that amateur footage from that month — showing dark entities stalking a rural village, followed by a mass killing and a journalist's disappearance — was real, later compiled into a 2011 commercial film. The village's own headman says none of it happened.

What's Actually Verifiable

Very little. Karadedeler Olayı is a real, commercially released Turkish film: an 87-minute thriller/horror feature released on September 16, 2011, distributed by Tiglon, that grossed roughly 623,705 Turkish lira at the box office. It follows the same marketing template as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity — presenting itself as a compilation of “found” amateur video rather than a scripted drama.

That is where the documented part ends. There is no independent news archive, police record, or court filing confirming that seven people were killed in Davutlu village, Lüleburgaz district, Kırklareli province, in early 1989. There is no confirmed identity for the journalist referred to only as “H.B.,” and no verified service record for the military officer named only as “A.S.” The village muhtarı (headman) — who says he has held the position since 1984, meaning he would have been in office at the time — has publicly and explicitly denied that any such event occurred, telling reporters he was prepared to pursue legal action against people spreading the story as fact.

The Legend

According to the story that circulates on Turkish forums, blogs, and social video, residents of a small Kırklareli village began seeing dark, shadow-like entities (cinî varlıklar — jinn-like beings, part of the same broader Turkic supernatural tradition that produced figures like Tepegöz) after nightfall in January 1989, and stopped leaving their homes once darkness fell. When word reached the press, a young journalist known as H.B. traveled to the village to investigate. After eleven days of interviews turning up nothing unusual, he reportedly left his camera with a 14-year-old resident, asking the boy to keep filming in case anything paranormal happened, then left the village.

Three days later, the story goes, gendarmerie (jandarma) forces detained H.B. Seven people across three separate homes in the village were found dead, some dismembered — including, in some retellings, the boy who had been holding the camera — with H.B.'s name written on a wall in blood. Officials allegedly classified the deaths as a “madness incident” to avoid public panic. H.B.'s clothing and a notebook turned up in a nearby forest on February 3, 1989; he was never found. The commanding officer who interrogated him, referred to as Captain A.S., is said to have suffered a breakdown, divorced, retired early, and died by suicide in 2006 — with his daughter allegedly discovering three videocassettes labeled “Karadedeler Olayı 1989” in his safe deposit box years later, footage that supposedly became the basis for the 2011 film.

Why the Story Persists Anyway

The structure is a recognizable one: a “true story” claim built to license a found-footage film, similar in shape to how The Blair Witch Project (1999) was marketed with a fake missing-persons backstory, or how a modern mockumentary can get mistaken for real footage decades after release. What keeps Karadedeler Olayı alive on Turkish forums like Ekşi Sözlük more than three decades later isn't new evidence — it's the specificity. A named journalist, a named officer, an exact date the clothes were found (February 3, 1989), a safe-deposit-box discovery years later: these details read like documentation even though none of them trace back to a verifiable source. That's a pattern folklorists see repeatedly in modern legend-building — invented specificity substituting for evidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Karadedeler Olayı based on a true story?

No independent evidence supports it. The 2011 film claims to compile real 1989 footage, but no news archive, police record, or court document from that period documents the killings, and the local village headman has publicly denied the event took place.

Where is the village in the story supposed to be?

The story is set in Davutlu village, in the Lüleburgaz district of Kırklareli province, in Turkey's Thrace region near the Bulgarian border.

Who is “H.B.” in the story?

H.B. is described only by initials as a young journalist who traveled to the village to investigate the sightings and later disappeared. No full name, employer, or independently verifiable identity has surfaced for this person.

What happened in the 2011 film?

Karadedeler Olayı is an 87-minute Turkish thriller/horror film released September 16, 2011, presented in a found-footage style similar to The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, claiming to assemble amateur video shot in 1989.

Has anyone officially denied the story?

Yes. The muhtar (village headman) of the village associated with the story stated he had held the post since 1984 and that no such event occurred, and said he was considering legal action over the false claims.

Is there an English Wikipedia article about this?

No. As of 2026, the Karadedeler Olayı has a Turkish Wikipedia article but no dedicated English-language entry, which is part of why the story is largely unknown outside Turkey.