Over 2,000 individuals from 51 criminal syndicates were detained in a series of operations targeting organised crime in Turkey, taking place over a span of five months. The operations, diligently reported by Tolga Güney of Mezopotamya Agency, intensified around 8 September, with a clamp down on a gang led by Ayhan Bora Kaplan, who was accused of armed assault, extortion, and other criminal activities.
On 26 September, 35 members of a criminal gang known as ‘Terkinler’ were detained in Bursa İnegöl, followed by the detention of 41 individuals affiliated with the ‘Şahinler’ gang on 29 September, in an Istanbul-centred operation. By the 6 October, the operations had further escalated, with a large-scale crackdown across 31 provinces, netting 307 individuals associated with 15 criminal gangs and their arms suppliers.
The long-standing presence of these criminal networks points to a deeper issue within society, emphasised another journalist, Erk Acarer. He underscored the necessity of a broader clean-up to address the roots of organised crime, while also highlighting the four primary bases of these criminal networks: drug trade, online gambling, human trafficking and arms trade.
Acarer went onto shed light on the phenomenon of ‘imported gangs’ – foreign criminal syndicates able to operate within Turkish borders due to the country’s judicial inadequacies. Internationally sought criminals reportedly head to Turkey to find refuge.
Turkish journalist Timur Soykan has also painted a disturbing picture of Turkey’s transformation into a safe haven for international criminals. Soykan pointed to legal loopholes and political connections that facilitate foreign illegal organisations operating within the country, raising serious questions about Turkish law and governance.
The Global Organised Crime Index 2023 identified Turkey as the country with the highest organised crime index in Europe. The report underscored Turkey’s alarming ascent in organised crime rankings, particularly spotlighting an escalating role in global cocaine trafficking. Opioids trade is also a major factor, with the global anti-crime initiative identifying the Turkish–Bulgarian corridor as “arguably the major transit point for heroin in Europe”, which hosts one of the largest consumer markets.
Globally, Turkey ranks 14th on the organised crime index. International criminal networks exploit Turkey as a pivotal transit point between producers in South America and markets in both Europe and the Middle East. The findings echo a prevalent narrative in Turkey’s entrenched issues of state-linked criminal actors and human trafficking, further exacerbated by the illicit drug trade, prominently cocaine.
According to Turkish journalist Murat Yetkin, the recent series of operations targeting criminal syndicates in Turkey uncovered a tangle of connections reaching back to dark periods of the country’s history, during the peak of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict in the mid 1990’s. His exposé traces the nexus of organised crime and deep state involvement to past incidents such as 1996 Susurluk scandal, which revealed ties between the Turkish government, the ultra-nationalistic ‘Grey Wolves’, and the Turkish mafia.
Yetkin suggested that the operation against Ayhan Bora Kaplan may have similarly broad implications within Turkey’s changing political landscape. Figures like former Interior Ministers Süleyman Soylu and Ali Yerlikaya are alleged to have ties to criminal elements, exemplifying the intertwining of power structures and organised crime within Turkey’s socio-political fabric.
