"Beat & Release": Game Over? No, Enjoy the Horror Show Too, in Antakya

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 10 October 2021)

It takes uninterrupted concentration to win at backgammon.

In Antakya, Hatay, at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon the day before

yesterday, 5 men were playing backgammon in front of a store when 

a young girl named E.M. (17) came screaming toward them, chased by

her boyfriend İbrahim K. (24) who was threatening her with a meat

cleaver. (!) 

But the 5 backgammon players continued sitting at their table and the

game went on, although one of them ran away at the sight of the

meat cleaver.  Another man heard the commotion and came out of his

store, but upon seeing İbrahim K. smacking E.M. with the meat cleaver, 

he turned and went back into his store.  

Both E.M. and İbrahim K., who is a drug addict, are members of the

region's 'Kurbat' tribe.  İbrahim K. was taken into custody by police

but E.M. did not file a complaint against him.  

The Hatay governor's office issued a statement about the incident: 

"The suspect was captured by our security units and the citizen who

suffered violence does not have life-threatening wounds."

Nobel Prize for "Social Media Publicity Prankster" Goes to Borçka Municipality

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Cumhuriyet Newspaper, 9 October 2021)

                               "And the winner isn't..."

The municipality of Borçka district in Artvin province posted a message

of congratulations to Nobel Literature Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah

on its social media account, but used a picture of actor Morgan Freeman.  

The next day, singer Tarık Mengüç's picture was used instead of Gurnah's.

Borçka Mayor Ercan Orhan explained that "we didn't expect that our 

humor would be so well-liked and, in the parlance of social media, 'start 

trending'."

The municipality's message intended for the real Gurnah stated that

"we congratulate him and eagerly await his new novels."  Social media

users were quick to point out that Gurnah does not look like Morgan 

Freeman.   However, the following day the Borçka municipality's social

media page carried a new congratulatory message for Gurnah but this

time used a picture of Turkish singer Tarık Mengüç instead of Gurnah's. (!) 

                    The resemblance is uncanny (not! ).

Borçka Mayor Orhan claimed that the postings were meant to be funny and

that he was surprised but pleased that the postings were "trending" on social 

media, saying "we've made the Z generation happy once again. Our 

intention in using the photo of Freeman for Gurnah was to make people,

who of course recognized Freeman, wonder what the real Gurnah looked

like and to get them to read his books and, at the same time, raise our lovely

district's profile.  I think we succeeded."

"In order to increase the dosage of our humor, we next used a photo of the

great musician Tarık Mengüç on purpose, to emphasize that we'd used 

Freeman's photo intentionally.  And this is further proven by our spelling

'Gogele' instead of 'Google'.  When you look at the comments that came 

after both postings, it's evident that the second posting (Mengüç) made it 

clear to people that our intention was humorous."

"Our geography has produced Nasreddin Hoca, Karagöz-Hacivat, Aziz

Nesin, Gırgır, Leman and Uykusuz, so you see that we use humor around

here all the time as one of the most powerful communications tools. We

trust in people's sense of humor."

Previously, there was another interesting posting on the social media 

account of the Borçka municipality: that Princess Diana and Prince 

Charles spent their honeymoon in Borçka. (!)  The posting got a big

audience, with many social media users wondering whether it was in

fact true.  In explanation, the municipality posted this message: "Our aim

is to attract attention to our district's natural beauty.  The view seen in

the picture resembles our district's beautiful terrain.  It was a joke, of

course, and we will continue to do this on social media."

  

"Beat & Release": Saddam's Monstrous Killer Legacy Dies Hard, in Eskişehir

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 7 October 2021)

                                              Iraq Attack

Iraqi national Sally Ali Challab Al-Abbood (20) went missing in Eskişehir

for 34 day.  Now, the number of suspects arrested in the related 

investigation has risen to four. 

Sally, the daughter of Ali Challab Al-Abbood (60), a former major in

Saddam Hüseyin's army, disappeared on 2 September and while efforts

to find her continue, police are looking into the likelihood that she was

murdered and dismembered.  

The young woman was last seen with Iraqi national Amjed Mohsin

Mohammed, who has been arrested on the charge of "murder by means

of monstrous torture".  Mohammed fled to Bulgaria with the help of 

Sarhan Shihab Ahmed, who has also been arrested.  Ahmed explained

that "Mohammed told me that he needed treatment for a throat problem.

I didn't detect any nervousness coming from him and I definitely didn't

think he had committed murder." 

Three other individuals have been arrested for helping Mohammed get

to Bulgaria by illegal means.  Together with Mohammed, the group

took a pirate taxi from Eskişehir to Aksaray in Istanbul, where they 

paid human traffickers $2,300 for Mohammed's passage to Bulgaria. 

Police have video confirming that Sally did not come out of 

Mohammed's  house again after entering it.  Mohammed was asked 

about having bought an ax and a saw from a hardware store (!) and 

about the 24 meters of nylon bags he took from his workplace, as well 

as why he came out of the house a number of times during the night, 

wearing different clothes each time, to throw bags into garbage 

containers.  

                Animal lover. People? Not so much.

In response to these questions, Mohammed explained that "I feed the

animals and I leave bread and other things for them in the garbage. I

bought the ax and the saw to cut up meat left over from the Feast of

Sacrifice.  I think that someone else must have changed things around

in my house.  Sally left my house."   Nevertheless, the blood found on 

the saw in Mohammed's house matched the DNA sample of Sally 

obtained from her family.  (!)

Neighbors confirmed that they heard a woman screaming on September

2nd and one of them stated that "we heard a woman's screams coming

from Mohammed's house for about 30 seconds but there was no cry

for 'help'.  Anyway, we called the police."

Other video shows Mohammed and Sally walking from an office in

the Yanibağlar neighborhood to his house. 

Another Tragedy That Saying "I Don't Speak Turkish" Could Have Averted

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 6 October 2021) 

one English phrase click here for the English phrase

that could have saved Mehmet bey.

They've started taking English lessons...but have separate

teachers. 

About three years ago Mehmet Duvar was hoodwinked out of 89,000 TL 

(about $9,500) and afterwards, he and his wife Dudu Duvar stopped 

talking to each other.  However, Mehmet bey again fell victim to 

scammers the day before yesterday, losing 15,000 TL to callers who 

promised to find those had swindled him three years ago. (!)

Mehmet bey (71) and Dudu hanım (65), the parents of four children,

live a modest life in Isparta.  But three years ago their lives were turned

upside down by two people who came to their house, claiming to be

treasure hunters (!).  They told Mehmet bey that they would share a 

45 million TL fortune with him and swindled him out of 89,925 TL. 

Taking legal action, Mehmet bey tried to recover his money but, at the

same time, Dudu hanım became cross and the two stopped talking to

each other.  Dudu hanım began living by herself on the upper floor 

of their house and Mehmet bey on the ground floor.  

The day before yesterday, someone called Mehmet bey and told him

that "we're tracking the people who hoodwinked you three years ago."

So Mehmet bey got 15,000 TL in credit from a bank, which he promptly

lost to the scammer.  Police are trying to capture one S.A., who 

withdrew the 15,000 TL in Bursa. 

A downhearted Mehmet bey lamented that "they say that a person 

won't let a snake bite him twice but I wasn't wise enough to heed 

that.  I still don't know how I let those guys bamboozle me.  I'm

already heavily in debt and now I've got this 15,000 plus interest

hanging over my head.  I feel like punching myself when I think

about it."

Mehmet bey said that Dudu hanım is as yet unaware of this latest

incident (!). 

"I Don't Speak Turkish" - How to Defeat Turkish Phone Scammers With One English Phrase

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 4 October 2021)

If only Oya hanım had said "I don't speak Turkish", her

scammer would have had to find another pigeon.  

Murat Erkek (18), identifying himself in a phone call as a policeman, 

scammed Oya U. (73) out of 300,000 TL (about $33,000) worth of gold 

and cash.  Oya hanım's neighbors were suspicious of her long phone 

conversation and called the real police.  However (!), when the police 

arrived at Oya hanım's home she wouldn't let them in, telling the phone

scammer Erkek "I don't recognize the people who have come.  Should 

I open the door?"

Oya hanım lives in Üsküdar, Istanbul, and last Tuesday her phone rang,

with the caller telling her that he was a policeman and that the money

in her bank account was being used by a terrorist organization, so until

the police investigation concluded she should give all her money and 

gold to him.  

In a panic, Oya hanım delivered 300,000 TL worth of gold and cash to

an individual who came to her home.  Her neighbors, though, grew 

suspicious of her extended phone conversation so they summoned the

real police.  But when they arrived, Oya hanım took Erkek's advice 

and wouldn't let them in for quite a while.  After intense efforts by the

police to convince Oya hanım of the real situation, she realized she had

been duped and filed a complaint. 

Police looked at video surveillance to determine that the scammer was

Erkek, who had made off to Adana with Oya hanım's gold and cash. 

Nevertheless, Erkek was arrested in Adana and brought back to Istanbul.

The gold and cash were returned to Oya hanım and Erkek was jailed. 

Istanbul Transit System's Well-traveled Pooch 'Boji' - 29 Stops/30 Kilometers Per Day

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 3 October 2021)

TNT's first sighting in August, before he was 'Boji'

                      "Finally! I've been waiting forever!"

A dog named 'Boji' has become a social media phenomenon by riding

Istanbul's mass transit system.  Thanks to a GPS chip on Boji's collar,

he is now being tracked - on an average day he visits 29 stops and 

covers 30 kilometers. (!)  

//NOTE: The dog's name 'Boji' was given by Istanbul transit workers.

It is a corruption of the English word 'bogie', which is the name of  the

wheel framework put under train carriages.//

Boji, 4-years-old, is being tracked by members of the Istanbul Metro 

customer relations team.  In addition to the Metro subway system,

Boji uses buses, ferries and trains in the Istanbul mass transit system.

He spent last night in Ataşehir.  During the day, Boji took the Kadıköy-

Tavşantepe Metro and his signal was tracked to Tuzla, where he spent

the daylight hours.  

Boji's favorite line is the T1 Kabataş-Bağcılar tram on Istanbul's 

European side but he goes to the Anatolian side often, as well.  Boji

is a model rider, observing all the rules such as waiting for passengers

to get off before he boards.  He then finds an empty spot on the floor

and lies there in silence until he reaches his destination. (no mention

of his Metro fare card - or not.)

                                   "You talkin' to me?!"

The Metro customer relations folks explained that "Boji is being

tracked 24/7, although he may go to places where the signal can't

be read.  For example, Boji may board a Metro train without 

internet access so we lose his signal.  But when he comes out again

we pick it up.  The GPS chip is on his collar."

On the routes that Boji frequents most often bowls of dog food 

have been set out for him.  Also, Boji may get some special training.

"Beat & Release": Rich Old Man's Wife & Gang Dump Him Overboard from His Yacht

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 2 October 2021)

              So much for May-September romances...

On 19 September, someone walking their dog in Piri Reis village of 

Darıca district in Kocaeli province, noticed a body that had washed

up on the beach and called police.  An examination of the body revealed

plastic handcuffs on the wrists and ankles, along with a rope around both

feet.  Police determined that the body had been thrown into the sea.

Found nearby was a plywood crate in which the body had been placed 

before being thrown overboard.  The body was identified as that of Yılmaz 

Sezer (78), a wealthy real estate mogul who lived in Bursa's Gemlik district.

Based on the serial numbers found on the plywood crate, along with its

winch pulley rings, police determined where the crate was made, where

it was sold and who bought it. (!)

In addition, two yachts belonging to Sezer were found in at Tuzla port

in Istanbul and police surveilled those who came and went, to and from,

the yachts.  In the ensuing investigation conducted by police in Bursa,

Istanbul, Kocaeli and Sakarya, Sezer's wife G.Ö. (!), and ten others were

taken into custody.  

Examinations on the yachts and of garbage bags found nearby revealed 

blood-stained clothing and rugs from the yachts.  Police determined that

the suspects seized Sezer on one of his yachts, took it out to sea and 

tortured him in order to get his money and property.  After Sezer died,

his body was put into the crate and thrown overboard.  

It turned out that Sezer's wife G.Ö. (54) had tricked her husband into

taking her out on the yacht, where the other suspects were already 

onboard waiting to grab him.  In addition to G.Ö., E.Ç.D. (39), G.Ş. (40), 

A.E. (43), E.A. (55), U.B. (47) and E. A. (39) were jailed, while four 

others were released. 

 

                            Darıca is just west of Gebze.