President Erdoğan spoke on the phone with the mother of Atlas, who was stabbed to death.

20.01.2026 20:13

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke on the phone with the mother of Atlas, who was stabbed to death in Istanbul. During the conversation, Erdoğan stated that he would follow up on the incident, saying, "What a beautiful child Atlas was, it deeply hurt me."

President Erdoğan, who spoke on the phone with the family of 17-year-old Atlas Çağlayan, who was killed in Istanbul, stated, "Atlas is such a beautiful child, it deeply hurt me."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with the family of 17-year-old Atlas Çağlayan, who lost his life after being stabbed during a fight in Güngören, Istanbul.

"WE WILL FOLLOW UP ON THE INCIDENT"

During the meeting, Erdoğan indicated that he would follow up on the incident, saying, "We are following the matter. I would like to visit you when I come to Istanbul this weekend. Atlas is such a beautiful child. May his place be paradise, inshallah."

WHAT HAPPENED?

A fight broke out on January 14 in front of a pastry shop in the Mehmet Nesih Özmen neighborhood between Atlas Çağlayan and E.Ç. (15), who did not know each other beforehand, due to a dispute over "looking sideways."

In the fight, E.Ç. stabbed Atlas Çağlayan with a knife referred to as a "switchblade," and Çağlayan, who was taken to Bağcılar Training and Research Hospital, could not be saved despite intervention.

Police teams caught E.Ç. and his friends with the knife used in the incident and took them to the police station to obtain their statements.

After their procedures at the police station, the underage suspect E.Ç., who was sent to the courthouse, was arrested by the on-duty peace criminal judge.