Mafia Movies? This is Where They Come From

turkce links to original Turkish article

(Sabah Newspaper, 13 June 2014)

Mafioso do the perp walk. Slain policeman leaves pregnant wife.

On 9 June in Edirne, some people from Bulgaria, Russia
and Georgia got into a firefight with five Turks. By
coincidence, Huseyin Imrag (33), a police officer assigned
to the Edirne Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau
(KOM) happened to be on the same street at the time of the
clash and he was shot through the heart. Imrag was immediately
operated on but could not be saved.

Five suspects, one with a bullet wound in the leg, were
taken into custody.  It turned out that the firefight was
between two mafia groups made up of Azerbaijanis and
Georgians fighting over fruit and vegetable exports to
Russia. The Georgian Rotuguli mafia group, famous in
Russia for threats, kidnapping and armed attacks, was at
odds with Azerbaijani Ali Haydarov's group about which of
their favored companies would handle the exports to Russia.

The two groups could not agree and the Rotuguli group
decided to kill Ali Haydarov. First the Rotugulis learned
that Haydarov was in St. Petersburg so they sent hitmen
there to ambush him but police got word and arrested
the hitmen. Haydarov and his friends recently came to
Istanbul on business. The Rotugulis found out about this
and again sent a team of hitmen to kill Haydarov.

Haydarov and friends tried to lose the pursuing hitmen
by fleeing to Edirne with their Turkish associates and
settling into a hotel there. Undaunted, however, the
Rotuguli hitmen found the hotel and the Georgians set
up an ambush in front of it. As the Azerbaijanis got into
their cars the attack began, drawing the attention of
policeman Irmag, who was in the area on another case.

Irmag captured one of the gang members but was himself
shot.  Irmag, whose wife is four months pregnant, was
laid to rest in his hometown of Izmir the day before
yesterday. Fifteen people have been arrested in connection
with the incident, among them are three Georgians and
seven Azerbaijanis.
 

  Edirne is just up the road, northwest of Istanbul.