Supermarket chain in Turkey prints photos of missing children on millions of grocery bags

ISTANBUL – Cevher and Hesna Kupsi, whose son who went missing in Istanbul more than seven years ago, are pinning their hopes for his return on white plastic grocery bags plastered with a photo of their young Bayram.

Onur Supermarkets is printing the faces of missing children on 3 million to 4 million bags it hands out each month at its 76 stores in Istanbul and three other cities in western Turkey.

The grocery bag campaign is reminiscent the U.S.-based National Child Safety Council's program in the 1980s to put the faces of missing children on millions of milk cartons.

Gen. Servet Yoruk, a former gendarmerie commander, said earlier this year that 14,412 children have been reported missing in Turkey during the past five years.