Turkey’s justice minister said the government is preparing to review legal provisions that reduce sentences for crimes committed by minors, following the killing of a man in Ankara by two teenagers and other similar incidents that have fueled debate, Deutsche Welle (DW) Turkish service reported on Monday.
Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced on social media that four suspects had been arrested in connection with the killing of 22-year-old Hakan Çakır last week in Ankara’s Keçiören district, where he was fatally stabbed after a dispute with two brothers aged 14 and 17.
Tunç linked the case to Mattia Ahmet Minguzzi, a 16-year-old Italian-Turkish youth stabbed to death in İstanbul earlier this year, saying that crimes involving minors under 18 had become a pressing issue.
“Especially after the loss of our child Ahmet Minguzzi and similar incidents, violence involving offenders under 18 has become a matter we need to focus on,” he said.
The minister added that the government was considering new legislation to prevent minors from being drawn into crime and to protect public security, saying, “The need has emerged for new regulations in the Turkish Penal Code [TCK] and other laws concerning the stages of investigation, prosecution and execution of sentences.”
Tunç said the first step would be to review sentence reductions currently granted under Article 31 of the TCK for offenders between 15 and 18. Under the existing law, life sentences can be reduced to 12 to 15 years, while other penalties are reduced by one-third. He also said new measures would allow juvenile offenders to serve time in closed prisons and later be transferred to educational facilities if deemed rehabilitated.
Parents or guardians who fail to comply with court-ordered measures for children could also face stricter sanctions.
The minister said the bill would be submitted to parliament when the new legislative year begins, emphasizing that the aim was “to protect the best interests of the child while also ensuring public safety.”
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the number of children brought to security units for allegedly committing crimes rose by 13 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year. The figure reached 202,785 last year, up from 178,834 in 2023. The most common offenses were assault (40.4 percent), theft (16.6 percent), drug-related crimes (8.2 percent) and issuing threats (4.6 percent).
The murder of Minguzzi by peers earlier this year had sparked a nationwide debate over whether penalties for underage offenders are too lenient, with his mother calling for tougher sentences, while experts urged policymakers to address the social factors driving children into crime.