15 children from ‘motorbike gang’ beat 16-year-old Turkish boy to death

Duvar English

On Aug. 17, 15 children beat 16-year-old Emir Koçhan to death in Istanbul’s Sarıyer district. 

Allegedly, the incident took place after a row broke out on social media after Koçhan shared a photo on his Instagram account.

Sometime after the incident, Koçhan was beaten to death by a group of 15 people while he was in a park with his friends. 

The group also prevented his five friends who were with him from calling the ambulance and the police after extorting their phones.

The 16-year-old boy died in hospital on Aug. 20. Following the investigation into the incident, four minors—two aged 15, one aged 16, and one aged 17—were taken into custody and subsequently arrested.

Effect of social media: Gangs run rampant

Journalist Timur Soykan from the daily BirGün reached the statements given to the police by his friends who witnessed Koçhan being beaten to death. One of the friends mentioned that the group beat the 16-year-old until he was unconscious, with one of them saying, "We'll kill him and bury him, I don't care."

According to Soykan, one of the juveniles has a record of seven offenses in the last year.

In his article, journalist drew attention to the socio-economic conditions of the crime scene, “(The children) all live in Ayazağa, which was once a slum area and now is a neighborhood of skyscrapers. While there are luxurious lives right next to them, most of the children in the neighborhood have no future.”

Soykan also drew attention to the effect of social media posts of drug rings and gangs on children.

“These children see the path to a life of luxury in the posts of criminal organizations on TikTok. Gangs have no problem in terms of human resources when they share videos of themselves traveling around with guns in luxury cars on social media. Brutality and violence become the characteristics that children can prove themselves to gangs,” he wrote.

According to Soykan, children who envy the criminal syndicates living this glamorous life “dream of growing their own gangs.” In Istanbul, motorbike gangs formed by children have been running rampant.

The 16-year-old boy who was arrested on the charge of killing Koçhan was a secondary school graduate and worked as a motorbike courier without a license in a liquor shop. Another 17-year-old boy worked as a motorbike courier without a license as well.

Many children under the age of 18 come to the place where the murder took place on motorbikes every day. People in the neighborhood said that there had been many fights in this area before.

The father and relatives of the 16-year-old boy who was murdered also stated that the boys who organized the attack acted like a gang.

Children record torture towards peer

The video footage of eight children beating another child with kicks, slaps and punches in Istanbul's Büyükçekmece district has began to be circulated on social media on Aug. 22.

Eight children between the ages of 12 and 17 put another 16-year-old boy on the ground and beat him with kicks, slaps, and punches for minutes while the attack was recorded by another child.

The police detained eight children who were found to be involved in the incident. The children were referred to the courthouse after their procedures at the police station.