Press
The arrests of Turkish mafia bosses show the entanglement of the state and criminal gangs. There is no end in sight to this cooperation.
Ankara – In recent months, the Türkiye Members and leaders of organized crime are repeatedly arrested. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya therefore keeps posting videos of police operations on X to prove this. Just on Thursday (May 23, 2024), Yerlikaya posted a video showing the arrest of Sead Dedeic and Marciano Eugene Ruimwijk, who are wanted with international arrest warrants. Dedic and Ruimwijk are accused of drug smuggling, among other things.
“I want our beloved people to know that we will not allow national and international organized crime organizations, drug traffickers and gangs to disturb the peace of our people, no matter how big they are, no matter what arrest warrant they are wanted with,” Yerlikaya writes in the arrest video.
There has also been a blow against the Turkish mafia in Italy. Police there arrested the alleged mafia boss Baris Boyun, 17 Turkish and two Italian people. According to Yerlikaya, Ankara had applied for an international arrest warrant against Boyun. He is wanted in Turkey for 23 different crimes, including murder. There have been 317 arrests from people close to Boyun, the Interior Minister also said on X.
Turmoil surrounding events in Turkey – collaboration between mafia and state
The case of the suspected mafia boss Ayhan Bora Kaplan, who was arrested in September, showed how much the Mafia, police, judiciary and above all the right-wing radical MHP are closely linked Last week, the homes of three high-ranking police officers in Ankara who had previously been suspended from duty were searched. The nationalist and mafioso is also considered a companion of the former Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.
On the night of the coup on July 15, 2016, Soylu had called on Kaplan and his men to gather in front of the building of the state broadcaster TRT. Kaplan and his men complied with the call. Pictures show the group gathering heavily armed in front of the broadcaster. The nightclub owner is accused of murder, drug offenses and protection racketeering.
Türkiye resembles Italian mafia film according to CHP – repeated arrests
The raids against the police officers and mafia bosses are a thorn in the side of the right-wing extremist MHP. “There is a conspiracy that cannot be eliminated by suspending a few police chiefs,” said the leader of the right-wing extremist MHP and government partner of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP. The ultimate target of this conspiracy is the MHP, the AKP and ultimately Turkey. The MHP has sympathizers not only in the mafia, but also in the police and judiciary.
“It is not clear whether Turkey is watching an Italian mafia film or something is happening in the justice-politics-security triangle,” said opposition leader Özgür Özel (CHP) in front of the cameras about the events in his country. Since the corruption scandal of December 2013 and the subsequent coup attempt, Turkey has declined in terms of the rule of law and human rights. The country is ranked 153rd out of 193 countries in the Global Organized Crime Index. And there is no end in sight. Rather, the mafia bosses who are being arrested seem to be replaced by new ones.
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