Turkish woman tries to prove she's alive for 23 years

"Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," Mark Twain quipped more than 100 years ago. Now, a 61-year-old Turkish woman is also saying the same thing, but she's having a tough time convincing authorities that it's the truth.

Sevim Hayva, who now lives in Canada and possesses Canadian citizenship, has spent the past 23 years attempting to prove that she is still living after a step-sibling allegedly registered her as "deceased" to prevent her from getting a share of the family's inheritance. 

Hayva's parents divorced when she was 4 years old and she was given to another family, growing up in their household before getting married. Hayva had two children but later divorced and moved abroad. 

Her father, meanwhile, married for the third time when she was abroad. The father, identified only as M., married a woman identified as E.K. The couple had six children, while Hayva, along with her sisters, K. Hayva and H.A., were also registered as the couple's children. 

However, one of Hayva's brothers, identified only as A., applied to the village head and gave a false declaration, asserting that Hayva and her sister K. had died. 

As such, the two have been officially registered as "dead" since Feb. 1, 1993.

After many years, another of Hayva's siblings, identified only as H.A., tried to reach her in Canada. H.A. determined that her sister had been registered as deceased but discovered her location through online search. The siblings met after many years, during which H.A. informed her sister that she was registered as "dead" in Turkey. 

Hayva attempted to come to Turkey to correct the mistake, but was faced with a number of difficulties, including the fact that the village head who made the mistake was now dead...