Journalist and environmental activist Hakan Tosun, 50, on October 13 died after spending three days in a coma following a violent attack on him in an Isanbul street, according to local media reports.

Tosun was found unconscious on the roadside in Esenyurt district in the early hours of October 11, having suffered a head injury. His family was not notified until 27 hours later as his ID card along with other personal belongings were taken.

Surveillance footage shows Tosun walking alone at around 00:30 local time before being attacked and beaten by two individuals. The assailants fled the scene on a motorcycle. Two suspects, aged 18 and 24. were arrested on October 12.

Journalists experience violence, judicial harassment and media lynching

Freedom of speech conditions in Turkey are vry poor as things stand. Journalists in the country are regularly subject to violence in addition to common judicial harassment and media or social media lynching.

On October 14, for instance, another journalist, Nafiz Koca, also a publisher, was shot in his leg in front of his office with a shotgun. He survived the attack.

Between September 2023 and September 2024, a total of 109 journalists were detained in Turkey. Sixty three of them received travel bans while 36 spent some time in jail.

A form of Wild West

Journalists are not the only victims of deteriorating security conditions in Turkey. Across recent years, bne IntelliNews has shown again and again that Turkey has descended to the point that it has become something like a form of the Wild West.

On October 16, a 17-year old child shot a school principal in Denizli. It seems that each day that goes by in the country, a child shoots their father or attacks a police station or kills a peer.

As of 2023, it was estimated that there were a total of 36mn unlicensed guns in Turkey in addition to 4mn licensed ones.

By September 20, 1,578 people had been murdered so far this year in armed assaults, while 2,225 were wounded. In 2024, 2,370 people were murdered and 3,829 people were wounded.

According to the latest report on the drugs scenario from the narcotics department of the Turkish police, the annual number of drug users who applied to health institutions for assistance rose to 0.39mn in 2024 from 0.35mn in 2023. As much as 45% of the applicants in 2024 were first-time applicants.

Another reality is that foreign gangs and extensive smuggling schemes are also active in the country.

As of April, the 395 prisons operating in Turkey had a combined capacity of 299,940 inmates, but they were hosting 403,060 prisoners, meaning that 103,120 people were sleeping on the floor.

In 2024, Sedat “The Botox” Peker, a fugitive mafia boss, told daily Sozcu that gangs initiated by Syrian and Afghan migrants had attained a 50% market share in smuggled gold arriving at the Grand Bazaar.

Ride-by motorbike assasinations, bribe tariffs and child crime

In 2023, bne IntelliNews reported that Columbia-style motorcycle ride-by assassinations had emerged as the latest phenomenon in Turkey. Also in 2023, this publication reported on the Turkish judiciary’s “bribe tariff”. And in 2024, this publication reported on the country's “assassination tariff”. 

These figures should be updated in line with the latest USD/TRY rate due to hyperinflationary conditions in the country.

In 2024, a total of 0.20mn children in Turkey committed crimes. That compared to 0.18mn in 2023 and 0.21mn in 2022.

Assassination available for 4mn lira, buyer can ask for instalments

According to recent media reports, juniors on Telegram in Turkey are now offering to assassinate any target for Turkish lira (TRY) 4mn ($95,581). The price of wounding-only is reported at TRY 0.25mn.

In September, Cigdem Yilmaz from local daily Milliyet published details of her bargaining with online "triggermen", who are actually "triggerboys".

She offered TRY 1.5mn for an assassination but the online assassin rejected that offer, saying that the actual tariff stands at around TRY 5-6mn.

Another hitman, or hitboy, asked TRY 0.3mn for wounding a target but cut his offer to TRY 0.25mn after Yilmaz bid TRY 0.15mn. In the end, an agreement was made on TRY 0.25mn, including TRY 0.15mn in advance for operational costs and the remaining TRY 0.1mn in four equal instalments.

€3,000 to get over the Bulgarian border

The cost of getting across the Bulgarian border, meanwhile, stands at €3,000.

Also in September, local news portal NTV reported that child gangsters were on the internet offering prices on various kinds of assaults on property and persons.

The price tag of an arson attack on a workplace was reported as only TRY 10,000, with a gun attack on a workplace a heftier TRY 40,000. Prices for murder can fall as low as TRY 0.2-0.3mn.