Stricter penalties on the way for carrying unlicensed firearms

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya attended the "Peace of Turkey" security meeting held in Tekirdağ.

Following the meeting, which lasted approximately 2 hours, Minister Yerlikaya noted a general decline in crime rates and announced that they are working on a new bill that will make the penalties for carrying unlicensed firearms more deterrent.

"THERE IS A DECLINE IN CRIME RATES ACROSS TURKEY"

Minister Yerlikaya stated that compared to the first 9 months of last year, there has been a 4 percent decrease in crimes against persons and a 30 percent decrease in crimes against property across Turkey. Yerlikaya said the following:

"When we compare the first 9 months of the year across Turkey with last year, there is a 4 percent decrease in 10 major crimes against persons, and approximately a 30 percent decrease in the number of incidents for 9 major crimes against property. Shall we give examples? The number of incidents has decreased by 22 percent for violation of home immunity, 11 percent for intentional homicide, 10 percent for deprivation of liberty, 8 percent for sexual harassment, 5 percent for child sexual abuse, 2.5 percent for intentional injury, and 1.8 percent for sexual assault. The average of these is around 4 percent. Furthermore, the clearance rate for these crimes against persons has risen to 96-98 percent. We mentioned a 30 percent decrease in the number of incidents for 9 major crimes against property. Look, auto theft is down 60 percent, snatch theft 58 percent, pickpocketing 54 percent, motorcycle theft 53 percent, car theft 49 percent, burglary 47 percent, theft from workplaces or institutions 38 percent, robbery 27 percent, and fraud, which poses a serious threat to our public in field environments, has decreased by 5 percent."

"WE HAVE A BILL TO MAKE THE PENALTY FOR CARRYING UNLICENSED FIREARMS MORE DETERRENT"

Touching upon the bill they are preparing to make penalties for carrying unlicensed firearms more deterrent, Yerlikaya used the following expressions:

"Our fight against unlicensed firearms is shared with the public at every opportunity. 969 weapons were seized. Legal action was taken against 1,180 people, including pistols, blank-firing guns, hunting rifles, and long-barreled weapons." In the near future, our Ministry of Interior will present an omnibus bill to our Grand National Assembly; that bill includes a proposal regarding the deterrent effect of penalties for carrying unlicensed firearms. We are currently working on this.Regarding organized crime, or 'urban bandits,' we must state that our Tekirdağ Police and Gendarmerie have conducted 31 operations, resulting in 215 detentions, 66 arrests, and 47 judicial control decisions. We must also state that 11 organized crime groups have been dismantled and brought to justice. Regarding terrorism, specifically PKK and KCK, we want to state that 54 operations were carried out, resulting in 80 detentions, 13 arrests, and 28 judicial control decisions, and that 3 terrorists were neutralized. We also want to state that for FETÖ, there were 21 operations, 15 arrests, and 25 judicial control decisions; for DAESH, 16 operations, 2 arrests, and 9 judicial control decisions; and for leftist terrorist organizations, 6 operations, 7 detentions, and 5 judicial control decisions were issued.

9-MONTH DATA ON NARCOTICS AND THE FIGHT AGAINST IRREGULAR MIGRATION

Providing information on the fight against drugs and irregular migration, Minister Yerlikaya said the following:

Regarding drugs and poison dealers, if we express the narcotics data between January 1 and September 30 in kilograms—that is, cannabis, skunk, heroin, cocaine, opium, bonzai, and methamphetamine—a total of 96 kilograms were seized in the first 9 months of the year. We also want to share with our fellow citizens that 218,265 units of synthetic pharmaceuticals and 2,639 cannabis plants were seized, and in the 600 operations conducted, 3,487 detentions, 439 arrests, and 202 judicial control decisions were issued. All our fellow citizens know that since I took office on June 4, 2023, we have been fighting irregular migration in all our cities in a regular, uninterrupted, determined, and resolute manner. In Tekirdağ, the number of foreigners with legal residency rights is 19,396, including 12,162 under temporary protection, i.e., Syrians, 6,501 with residence permits, and 733 under international protection. What was our main focus regarding irregular migration? Migrant smuggling organizers. We conducted 106 operations against them. We are sharing with our citizens that there were 38 arrests and 32 judicial control decisions. In 9 months, 346 organizers were detained. Again, in 9 months, the total number of irregular migrants caught in Tekirdağ is 2,836. We are sharing these figures, the official figures provided by the state, with you.

Emphasizing that they will continue to fight resolutely on every issue as the Ministry of Interior, Minister Yerlikaya said, 'First of all, I want to state this very clearly. Our job, our profession, is to ensure the peace and security of this country. We are doing whatever is necessary for this, and we will continue to do so. Ensuring the peace and safety of our citizens is our primary duty. We will not take a single step back on this matter.'