Minister Ali Yerlikaya: “We do not want to sacrifice any other child to terrorism like we did with our child Eren Bülbül.”

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, in his speech at the Security Meeting he attended in Trabzon, stated, “We do not want to sacrifice any of our children to terrorism, like our child Eren Bülbül.”

Minister Yerlikaya visited Trabzon today, following a series of tours and inspections that began yesterday in Rize. First, he visited the Trabzon Governorship, and then he attended the Security Meeting held at the DSİ Social Facilities Necip İba Conference Hall. In addition to Minister Yerlikaya, the meeting was attended by Deputy Minister of Interior Münir Karaoğlu, Gendarmerie General Commander General Arif Çetin, Coast Guard Commander Rear Admiral Ahmet Kendir, Trabzon Governor Aziz Yıldırım, AK Party Trabzon Deputy Yılmaz Büyükaydın, AK Party Trabzon Provincial Chairman Sezgin Mumcu, and officials from Trabzon’s Police, Gendarmerie, and Coast Guard Commands.

“Trabzon is the title deed of this land and this geography with its 4,000-year-old ancient history.”

Starting his speech by saying, “Trabzon is the title deed of this land and this geography with its 4,000-year-old ancient history,” Minister Yerlikaya continued, “Trabzon is the blessed legacy of Sultan Fatih, who said, ‘We are going to conquer hearts, not lands.’ We are working tirelessly day and night to protect this blessed legacy. As a ministry, we are fighting for peace and security in this sacred city, combating everything from terrorist organizations to drug dealers, organized crime groups, fraudsters, and human traffickers. We will continue to fight. In this context, we are rooting out terrorism and terrorists in Trabzon. We will not leave the blood of our martyrs on the ground throughout Turkey and in all our cities. We are determined. We will continue our fight against terrorism until the last terrorist is neutralized. We do not want to sacrifice any more children of this homeland to terrorism like our child Eren Bülbül. To this end, a total of 64 operations have been carried out against the separatist terrorist organization PKK, KCK, FETÖ, ISIS, and leftist terrorist organizations in Trabzon. In these operations, 77 suspects were detained. Nine of them were arrested. Judicial control measures were issued for 11 individuals. The fight against drug trafficking is a multidimensional social problem that includes social, political, and economic aspects. In the same period, 230 operations were conducted against drug trafficking in Trabzon. In these operations, 1,910 drug traffickers were detained. Of these, 175 were arrested. Judicial control measures were issued for 45 individuals. At this point, we must all make an effort, and we actually expect more support from our fellow citizens in Trabzon in this collective effort,” he said.

“Leave this to us, we will take care of them.”

In his speech, Yerlikaya also mentioned software programs called ‘NARVAS,’ stating, “What we hear about drug dealing or usage is related to this. Sharing what we know about these with our security units, through our integration application, namely 112, empowers us. It makes our fight much more effective. Our determination to fight against criminal initiatives formed by individuals coming together to profit from illegal activities has been visible to our entire esteemed nation since the day we took office. I want to state that with the Kuyu-10 operation we shared this morning, the number of operations has reached 620. I also want to express that 14 operations were conducted by our security units here, and a total of 44 suspects have been detained so far, with 4 arrests and judicial control measures issued for 5 others. If we know or hear anything about organized crime groups and urban bandits, please, I urge you to tell our security units, our governor, and our administrative officials: Leave this to us. We will take care of them. Because we recognize no power other than the will of the state and the nation. We are a rule-of-law state,” he stated.

“In the first 180 days of the year, there has been a significant decrease in crimes against property compared to the same period last year.”

At the end of his remarks, Yerlikaya spoke about crime rates, saying, “In 9 major crimes against property, comparing the first 180 days of 01.01.2024 – 30.06.2024 with the same period last year, there has been a significant decrease. In this period, there have been 87 incidents reported by the gendarmerie. In the gendarmerie area, 34 of these were home burglaries. Similarly, looking at the police area, we see 111 incidents, if we exclude 433 fraud cases. We observe that there have been no muggings or car thefts in the police area during these six months. Only 1 pickpocketing case has been reported. There were only 7 cases of robbery, and car thefts dropped to 9, with only 35 home burglaries reported in the police area. We state that even 1 is too many and unacceptable. Our friends have shown that they are much better than the previous period, the previous month, and the previous year, working hard to gain more appreciation, recognition, and prayers from our citizens for the peace of Turkey and Trabzon. We believe that this will continue. In terms of clarification rates, we see that 99 out of 100 cases of 10 major crimes against individuals were solved during this period. This is two points above the national average. What is the clarification rate for 9 major crimes against property? The national average is around 76. In Trabzon, this is about 8 points higher, approximately at 85. We believe that this rate will go even higher,” he concluded.