Nightclub bodyguards kill 33-year-old man in Alaçatı

İZMİR

Alaçatı, a tourism hotspot in the Aegean province of İzmir, has once again come to the country’s agenda, but this time not for its magnificent beaches to promote tourism but for a series of events publicly called “bodyguard terror” that has shadowed the neighborhood for almost a year now.

In the recent chain of events, two bodyguards of a nightclub killed a 33-year-old man.

According to police reports, Alpay Kalyon went to a nightclub in the Alaçatı neighborhood on Aug. 21 with his ex-wife and two friends.

While coming out, Kalyon and one of his friends witnessed a man beating a woman in front of the club.

He immediately made a move to break up the fight, but the bodyguards of the club confronted the man harshly.

It was not long when the brawl turned ugly, and before one could even realize it, one of the bodyguards stabbed Kalyon in the chest with a knife.

Police detained seven people, including the general manager of the club. After the interrogations, two bodyguards were arrested: One with “murder in the first degree,” the other with “intentional injury” charges.

One of the bodyguards defended himself in the police interrogation, saying, “He shouted and swore at us. I could not stand more and went inside the club to get a knife. I am regretful.”

In a confusing statement, the club’s owner said, “I do not know the bodyguards.”

“He went there to break up a fight, not start a new one,” Kalyon’s friends said.

Alaçatı, which is a neighborhood in Çeşme district, is one of the most famous tourist resorts in Turkey following Bodrum, a district of the southwestern province of Muğla.

The first “bodyguard terror” in Alaçatı that shook the public happened in the summer of 2020, when Daria Kyryliuk, an Ukranian model, accused the bodyguards of a famous beach club of beating her in front of her boyfriend.

In another incident, a gunfight broke out between bodyguards of some clubs in June in which a 23-year-old man who was leaving a club was accidentally killed by a bullet.

“This is not an organized crime, but a sudden event,” Ünal Çakıcı, the district governor of Çeşme, told daily Hürriyet on Aug. 26 about Kalyon’s killing.

He went on to say, “Since the beginning of the summer, we monitor the area of nightclubs against guns or drug trafficking with our police units. There is no way that organized crime groups can wander in Çeşme freely.”

The district governor also highlighted that a series of operations had been conducted since the summer of 2020 against some groups in the region.

“We will not let anyone ruin the elite and deluxe image of Çeşme,” he added.