"Beat & Release": COVID's Collateral Casualties Continue, in Istanbul

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 31 July 2022)

You can recover from COVID. Stab wounds? Not very often.

In Ümraniye, Istanbul, Ahmet Ali İçmek caught COVID-19.  When his 

wife Hava then caught the illness, she blamed her husband for not 

maintaining mask and distancing precautions.  A fight ensued, joined by 

their son Birol İçmek, who took the knife in his father's hand and stabbed

him to death. 

Ali Ahmet bey (68) caught COVID a few days ago but when he didn't

wear a mask or keep a safe distance away, his wife Hava hanım became

annoyed and, on 27 July, Hava hanım caught COVID, too.  The couple

began to fight and their son Birol (28) entered the fray.  Ali Ahmet bey

grabbed a knife from the kitchen and threatened his wife and son. 

Birol was able to wrest the knife from his father's hand and stabbed him

twice in the neck and once in the chest, killing him.  Police arrived at

the house and arrested Birol. 

Fake "Secret Agents" Foiled by Their Poor Spelling, in Alanya

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 29 July 2022)

Heiti saved from God knows what by spelling expert.

A spy-like caper to rival those seen in films occurred in Alanya district 

of Antalya province.  Five men entered the home of  Estonian Heiti 

Raag, wanted by Interpol with a "blue bulletin", and his wife Olga Raag,

identifying themselves as members of MIT (Turkish National 

Intelligence Organization).  The supposed MIT members asked Olga

where Heiti was and said that the couple had one hour to surrender

themselves. 

When Heiti could not be located the MIT "officials" - T.A. (54), İ.Y.

(58), Ş.T. (51), C.T. (43) and M.D.Ç. (32) -  took Olga to the

Gendermerie outpost, showed the sergeant on duty their "ID" cards

and claimed to be specially assigned to this mission by the Turkish

Presidency, showing the sergeant a search warrant signed by a 

"prosecutor with special authority".  

The "MIT 5" wanted the Gendarmerie commander to take Heiti and 

Olga into custody and hand them over.  However (!), the commander,

Col. Burak Mindivanlı, noticed some spelling errors in the paperwork

and when the identities of the "MIT 5" were researched it turned out

that C.T. has a police record of 30 crimes, including fraud and assault.

Also, the "special prosecutor" who signed the search warrant turned

out to be imaginary.

The Gendarmerie took the "MIT 5" into custody.  Suspect M.D.Ç. is

a lawyer registered in the Antalya bar and has acted as a lawyer for

Heiti Raag.  

                           Would-be Secret Agents

Commander Col. Mindivanlı personally went to the Mahmutlar 

Gendermerie outpost where the "MIT 5" had taken Olga and noticed 

how "cool" the suspects behaved even when their fraud

was being discovered: "the suspects were very calm even when 

handcuffed and kept on insisting that they were members of MIT.

They even wanted to call the governor.  But their paperwork was

very amateurish.  They wrote their real ID information on their 

fake MIT cards.  We think they wanted to squeeze the person 

being sought with the Interpol "blue bulletin" for money."

"Beat & Release": Thief Literally "Collared" , in Istanbul

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 28 July 2022)

                     Leaving so soon? What's the hurry?

Last week in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, Yasin Ekin was sleeping in a chair in 

the living room of his flat when he was awakened by a sound coming

from the corridor.  Thinking his wife might have made the sound, Ekin

called to her but no response came.  Reaching the corridor, Ekin came

face to face with a thief holding a knife. 

Fearing that his wife might awaken and see the thief, Ekin pounced on

the robber, holding the arm with the knife.  A tussle ensued and 

continued from the corridor into the living room.  The thief got free from

Ekin and tried to escape via an open window.  However (!),  Ekin grabbed

the thief by the collar and held on for 15 minutes until the police arrived

at the scene.  

At that point, Ekin let go of the thief, who had climbed up the iron

grating on the windows of the floor below to reach Ekin's flat and

police arrested him.  Ekin explained that "it took about 10-15 

minutes for the police to come.  During this time, the thief pleaded 

with me to let him go but I said 'you have to drop the knife first'.

He didn't so I held on to him."

Iron window grating - thief's stairway to heaven.

"Beat & Release": Armed to the Teeth. Does He Know Something We Don't?

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Cumhuriyet Newspaper, 27 July 2022)

                        Seems to be expecting trouble.

Ahmet Sivri, the head of the Rizeliler Association (people hailing from

Rize on Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast), in Küçükçekmece, Istanbul, 

posted pictures of himself with swords and guns, along with videos of

him shooting the guns, on social media.  

Sivri's social media postings drew a sharp response, prompting police

to take him into custody the day before yesterday at around 5 o'clock 

in the evening.  Searches conducted in Sivri's home, workplace and the

Rizeliler Association's office turned up the swords and guns seen on

social media.  Five of the guns' licenses had expired.  Sivri was 

interrogated for crimes "contrary to the law regarding firearms, number 

6136" and released. (!) 

            Even a warrior gets hungry sometimes. 

Massacre by 10,000 "Ghost Nets" in Lake Hirfanlı

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 25 July 2022)

         Whatever happened to hook, line and sinker?

Teams from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests Fisheries and 

Maritime Products General Directorate have retrieved 10,000 "ghost

nets" from Lake Hirfanlı, located between Ankara and Kırşehir.  

Thousands of creatures were found dead in the nets.  

Director Altuğ Atalay explained that fishermen at the lake assisted his

teams, adding that "we expected to retrieve 300-400 nets from a lake

of this size, but finding 10,000 means that the entire floor of the lake

was covered with these nets.  We are clearing lakes of these nets all

over the country because they are so harmful to our economy and to the

creatures living in the lakes.  So far we have cleared 545,000 square

meters of  these nets.  With the 10,000 from Lake Hirfanlı, the total

number of "ghost nets" retrieved has reached 25,000.  We estimate 

that by doing this we have saved at least 1.7 million creatures from 

death. In the Sea of Marmara, we are clearing "ghost nets" covered 

with "müsilaj" (gunk) in many places, as well."

"Beat & Release": The Vacation From Hell for a Young Istanbul Woman, in Karasu

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 22 July 2022)

                 Not the relaxation she was hoping for. 

Ş.Ö. (20), who lives in Istanbul, went to Sakarya's Karasu district for a

vacation.  On the evening of 18 July, while she was walking home after

a stroll along the shore with some friends, a car driven by Talip Altındal

pulled up alongside her and Altındal verbally accosted her.  Frightened,

Ş.Ö. talked back to Altındal and took a picture of his car with her

cellphone camera.  When she said she would call the police, Altındal 

became enraged and tried to run over the young woman with his car.(!)

At this point, Ş.Ö. sought refuge in a nearby shop but Altındal followed

her into the shop and began to beat her viciously, screaming "you were

going to take my picture and file a complaint!".  He broke her cellphone,

as well.  Ş.Ö. found a chance to escape and fled to the street.  Meanwhile,

the shop's security camera had recorded the entire beating incident. 

                                 Vacation tour guide.

In the street Ş.Ö. was able to find refuge in a woman's car, as Altındal

emerged from the shop with a weapon in his hand, threatening everyone

in sight.  The woman in whose car Ş.Ö. found refuge took her to the 

police station to file a complaint about Altındal's verbal and physical

assault on her.  Altindal, the jobless father of 4 children (!), was 

tracked down and jailed.  As for Ş.Ö. and her spoiled vacation, she 

said "the 30 seconds you saw on the camera were like 30 years for

me." 

        Karasu's tourism committee has some work to do.

"Beat & Release": Rose Tattoo on Hand Fingers Motorcycle Thief, in Istanbul

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 21 July 2022)

another self-inflicted tattoo click here for a previous

TNT story of a tattoo thief who met the same fate.

 

                     A rose bites the hand that fed it. 

M.E.G. lives in the İnönü neighborhood of Ataşehir, Istanbul and on 14

July his parked motorcycle was stolen.  The thieves called M.E.G. 

offering to sell his (!) motorcycle back to him for 12,000 TL (about 

$682) and M.E.G. agreed to the deal.  However (!), subsequently, 

M.E.G. went to the police station and filed a complaint. 

Police began their investigation by looking at street surveillance video

from the crime scene and noticed a tattoo of a rose on the hand of one

of the motorcycle thieves.  Comparing the rose tattoo with those in the

police archives, they identified R.A., who had been arrested many times

before for motorcycle thefts in the area.  R.A. was taken into custody 

(again!) in the Fındıklı section of Maltepe and after questioning he was

released (again!) on judicial supervision.  Police are now looking for 

R.A.'s partner-in-crime.