The Turkish Gang War That Terrorised London – UK Crime Documentary

Step inside the brutal world of the Tottenham Turks, one of the most feared Turkish gangs in London. From their violent feud with the Hackney Turks, to drug trafficking networks stretching from North London to Turkey and Eastern Europe, this is the story of a gang war that left dozens dead and a community scarred.

In this documentary, we uncover how a simple fight in a snooker hall spiraled into years of shootings, assassinations, and international manhunts. Discover how the Tottenham Boys rose to power, how their leaders like Izzet Eren and Kemal Eren became infamous names in Britain’s underworld, and how innocent people—including a 9-year-old girl—were caught in the crossfire.

This is not just a story about gangland rivalry. It’s about drugs, money, power, and revenge. It’s about how Turkish organised crime established roots in London, and how the cycle of violence spread from the streets of Tottenham and Hackney to Turkey and Moldova.

If you want to understand the real face of organised crime in the UK, this is the story you need to see.

#TottenhamTurks #LondonGangland #TurkishMafia #HackneyTurks #TottenhamBoys #OrganisedCrime #TrueCrimeDocumentary #GanglandUK #IzzetEren #KemalEren

On a late spring evening in 2022, the calm of a busy North London street was shattered by the roar of a motorcycle and the crack of gunfire. A gunman on a powerful motorbike pulled up outside a crowded Turkish restaurant in Doulston and opened fire without warning. In the chaos, a 9-year-old girl enjoying ice cream with her family was struck in the head by a bullet. Miraculously, she survived after months of intensive treatment, but she was left with lifealtering injuries. She wasn’t even the intended target of the attack. The shooter had come to assassinate a group of men dining at an outdoor table, suspected members of a local gang. This brazen act of violence in front of families and children was not an isolated incident. It was the latest chapter in one of London’s most notorious and long-running gang wars. For over two decades, two organized crime groups known as the Tottenham Turks and the Hackne Turks have been locked in a bitter feud across North London. Also referred to as the Tottenham boys and the Bombasilla, respectively. These rival factions have been linked to more than 20 murders and countless shootings, stabbings, and arson attacks in a relentless cycle of revenge. What began as a personal grudge evolved into a deadly turf war fueled by pride, retribution, and the lucrative profits of the heroine trade. This feud has turned quiet residential neighborhoods into battlefields and has drawn in not only gang members, but sometimes innocent bystanders as well. The animosity between the Tottenham Turks and Hackne Turks can be traced back to one fateful night in January 2009. In the early hours of that winter morning at a snooker hall near Mana House in Finsbury Park, leading figures from both gangs happened to cross paths. Kamal Armagan, the notorious leader of the Hackne Turks, approached a group from the Tottenham Turks that included a young gangster named Iset Eron and his cousin Kamal Erin. A heated argument erupted which quickly escalated into an all-out brawl on the club floor. Accounts from that night suggest Kamal Armagan was beaten or at least humiliated during the scuffle. Enraged and nursing his bruised pride, Armagan reportedly told police afterward, “I’m old school. I’ll sort it out myself.” It was a clear signal that he had no intention of letting the matter go. And that he intended to take justice into his own hands. Reprisals came swiftly and bloodily. Within weeks of the snooker hall fight, the feud burst onto the streets. In March 2009, automatic gunfire strafed the facade of the Hackne Turks E5 social club. An ominous warning shot of what was to come. Days later, in March 2009, violence struck again, this time in a small grocery store on Horny Road in Holloway. A 50-year-old shopkeeper named Armit Payak was shot dead behind the counter of his own shop. Payac was an entirely innocent man with no gang ties, but his store was co-owned by Meett Seleit, a member of the Tottenham Turks. The message was unmistakable. The Hackne Turks were taking revenge for the nightclub brawl by targeting anyone connected to their rivals. Prosecutors later described pay slaying as an act of immediate revenge. The hitmen who carried it out were hired killers working at the behest of the Hackne gang leadership. Police soon identified Kamal Armagan as a suspect behind the murder, but by the time they moved in, he had already fled the UK. Armagan slipped out of the country, evading capture as the violence in London began to escalate. The spring and summer of 2009 saw tit fortat attacks spiraling between the two gangs. In September of that year, Tottenham Turk leader is Eron was ambushed on a North London street. A gunman fired 12 shots at him at close range. Remarkably, Isizette escaped unharmed, diving for cover as bullets whizzed past, a near miss that only hardened the resolve of the Tottenham Turks. The following week, 2nd October 2009, the feud claimed another life. Oakai Urbasley, a 23-year-old member of the Tottenham Turks, was driving through Tottenham in a Range Rover when a hitman pulled alongside and opened fire. Herbasi was killed instantly, his SUV swerving off the road. The use of a motorbike assassin in broad daylight showed a chilling level of planning and ruthlessness. Retaliation came just 3 days later, October 2009. The Hackne Turks clubhouse, known as the E5 Club in Upper Clapton, was crowded with patrons when a masked asalant stormed in armed with a submachine gun. He sprayed the club with a hail of bullets, sending people diving for cover. When the smoke cleared, a 21-year-old man named Chem Duz Gun lay dead. Duz Gun was associated with the Hackne crew and may not have been the intended target at all. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The audacity of attacking a public venue underscored how brutal and indiscriminate the feud had become. Investigators believed the real targets that night were high-ranking Hackne Turks members present in the club, possibly even members of the Armagan family. Yet, it was a young man like Shem who paid the price. By the end of 2009, North London had witnessed an unprecedented wave of gangland violence. What started as a small-time dispute had exploded into a series of ruthless attacks, leaving residents in areas like Tottenham and Hackne, fearing who might be next. The bloodshed continued into the next years. In August 2010, gunman tried to kill Kennan Idogdu, a close associate of the Armagan family. Id Dogdu survived that ambush, but it was only a temporary reprieve. Neither side would let a wound go unanswered. The violence became a vicious cycle. A shooting here, a firebombing there, a stabbing in retaliation for a shooting, and on and on. North London’s Turkish and Kurdish communities lived on edge, knowing any public gathering or family shop could suddenly become a crime scene. Local police were well aware by now that they were dealing with a protracted gang war, but they struggled to break through the wall of silence. Many of the shooters were professional hitmen hired from outside, making it even more difficult to trace who ordered each attack. In early 2012, the feud reached a new level of intensity. February 2012, a key figure in the Hackne Turks was assassinated in broad daylight. Ali Armagan, a brother of Kamal Armagan and a lynchpin of the Hacknne gang, was sitting in his car near Turnpike Lane Station when a gunman walked up and fired repeatedly through the window. Ali Armagan, just 32 years old, died on the spot. The killing sent shock waves through London’s underworld. This wasn’t a street level dealer or enforcer. It was the brother of the Hackne Turks leader. To the Hackne gang, this hit was an open declaration of war. Word on the street pointed to Kamal Eron, then leading the Tottenham Turks as the one who ordered Ali’s execution in retaliation for earlier attacks. Whoever was responsible, the message was clear. Nobody, not even family, was off limits. The response came before the year’s end. In December 2012, Kamal Eron, the very man suspected of ordering Ali’s murder, was himself targeted far from London. While visiting the town of Elbistan in Turkey, gunman ambushed Kamal Erin and shot him several times. He survived but was gravely wounded, left paralyzed from the waist down. It was widely believed that Kamal Armagan, orchestrating revenge from exile, had arranged this attempted assassination as payback for his brother’s death. The feud had now breached national borders with tit fortat hits happening in both London and Turkey. The fact that both gang leaders, Kamal Armagan and Kamal Eron, were now out of commission, one in hiding, one in a hospital bed, did nothing to stop the violence. If anything, it only opened the door for a new generation to take up the mantle of vengeance. Leadership on the Tottenham side passed to another member of the Eron family. After Kamal Eron was incapacitated, his younger brother Zafa Eron took charge of the Tottenham Turks, but he too would soon be caught in the crossfire. On 18th of April 2013, as Zafa Eron sat in his car in Southgate, North London, a gunman approached and opened fire, killing him. Zafa was 34 and had been leading the gang for barely a year. His murder marked the fifth gang-lated killing attributed to this feud in just 4 years. Police suspected it was retaliation by the Hacknne Turks for the hits they had suffered. Another brother was dead. Another brutal message delivered. The cycle continued unabated, and any hopes of a truce seemed more distant than ever. By the mid210s, the feud still showed no sign of burning out. Many of its original instigators were now dead, disabled, or in hiding. Yet, the violence persisted. Isette Aaron, Zafa’s younger brother, had by then become the leader of the Tottenham Turks and was hellbent on avenging his fallen family members. In 2014, Isizette reportedly extended the war back to Turkish soil in pursuit of vengeance. In the coastal city of Bodram, Turkey, two men with ties to the Hackne Turks were shot in a revenge attack. One was killed and the other left paralyzed. Word was that orchestrated this payback for his brother Zafur’s assassination. Turkish authorities issued warrants for Isizette, making him a wanted man in Turkey as well as a notorious figure in London. The feud was no longer just a local turf war. It had morphed into an international vendetta. Even as plotted retribution, the Hackne Turks remained equally determined. 18th April 2015, exactly 2 years after Zafer’s murder, gunmen in Turkey struck yet another blow. One of Isett’s cousins, a man named Bzat, was gunned down. This hit was believed to have been ordered by Keml Armagan himself, targeting Isizett’s extended family. Even while Isette was behind bars, the tit fortat timing of the murder on the anniversary of Za’s death underscored how deeply personal and ceremonial the revenge cycle had become. But Isizet Aaron was not done fighting. In late 2015, events in London took a dramatic turn. Despite being wanted in Turkey, Isizette managed to escape custody there and smuggled himself back into the UK, determined to reassert control. On the night of October 2015, London police, tipped off by intelligence, intercepted a stolen motorcycle in North London. Riding it were two men. One of them was Isit Eron, then 32 years old, and the other an associate. Both were armed with loaded guns, including a compact submachine gun, and appeared to be on their way to carry out a hit, likely another act of vengeance. The police arrest that night foiled what could have been yet another murder. At last, the Tottenham Turks leader was in handcuffs and facing a lengthy prison sentence. It was a significant victory for law enforcement and a moment of relief for the community as many hoped this would finally halt the cycle of violence. What happened next shocked even veteran observers. On 11th December 2015, as Isette was being transported to court for sentencing, his gang attempted a bold ambush to free him. The Metropolitan Police, having been tipped off, moved in to stop the breakout near the courthouse. In the brief and chaotic confrontation that ensued, a police marksman shot and killed one of the wouldbe rescuers, 28-year-old Germaine Baker. The jailbreak attempt failed, but Baker’s death sparked controversy and a public inquiry into the use of force. This extraordinary incident revealed the lengths the Tottenham Turks were willing to go for their leader and underscored how dangerous the feud had become. That a London street could turn into a battleground between gangsters and armed police. For a short while after 2015, North London experienced a tense peace with Iset Eron locked away in a maximum security prison. There was a lull in the tit fortat killings. Perhaps the gangs were regrouping or perhaps they were momentarily deterred by the heavy sentences and media attention. But if anyone hoped the cycle of violence was truly broken, they were soon disappointed. In August 2019, after serving a few years in prison, Isizette Eron was transferred to a facility in Turkey to continue his sentence in his home country. It was supposed to remove him from his London power base. Instead, it gave him an opportunity. In September 2019, only weeks after arriving in Turkey, Isette escaped from custody. The details of how he fled remain unclear, but once again, he disappeared into the criminal underworld. Not long after Isett’s escape, a fresh tragedy reignited the feud. In 2020, Isette’s younger brother, Hussein Aaron, was murdered while on holiday in Turkey. He was gunned down in what was widely seen as yet another strike by the Hackne Turks, likely in revenge for all the blood the Eron family had drawn from the Armagans. Hussein’s killing sent shock waves through the Tottenham Turks. He had been a relatively uninvolved family member, but that didn’t spare him from becoming a target. Enraged by this loss, Isizette syndicate unleashed a new wave of violence in London. That year, police recorded multiple shootings and murder plots linked to the Tottenham Turks. Many believed to be retaliation for Hussein’s death. It seemed that even after so many losses, the appetite for revenge was still not sated. Through all of this, both gangs continued to finance their activities through a thriving narcotics trade. The Tottenham Turks and Hacknne Turks controlled significant portions of London’s heroine market, and the vast profits gave them plenty of resources to fund hitmen, buy weapons, and recruit allies. The business of drugs kept the feud boiling, as each side was also keen to protect its turf, and elicit income from the other. Even after years of bloodshed, the conflict remained front and center. The Doulston shooting that opened this story was one such retaliatory strike. On that evening in May 2022, a Tottenham Turk gunman brazenly targeted a group of Hackne Turks associates at a busy restaurant, wounding three men and nearly killing an innocent 9-year-old girl. The public outrage over that incident finally spurred law enforcement to redouble their efforts. Detectives discovered that the hit had been carefully planned under the direction of Tottenham gang bosses. A local accomplice named Javon Riley was later convicted for helping organize the attempted hit. Though the motorcycle gunman himself vanished into the night, the fact that a child was caught in the crossfire brought into sharp focus just how dangerous this cycle of violence had become. Meanwhile, the saga of Isette Eron, the gang boss who had driven so much of this carnage, was approaching its final chapter. After his 2019 prison break, Isette spent several years on the run. He reportedly moved through various countries under false identities, staying a step ahead of the law and his enemies. But in 2022, his luck finally ran out. Acting on international intelligence, authorities tracked him down in Shishino, the capital of Muldova, and arrested him. Now in his early 40s, Isette Eron was detained on an array of charges from orchestrating murders to trafficking huge quantities of heroin. The UK sought his extradition, but Isette stalled the process by applying for asylum in Muldova, claiming that returning to Britain would put his life at risk due to the gang feud. For over a year, Isette sat in a Muldoven jail as courts deliberated his fate. Then, in a decision that baffled many, a Muldoven judge granted him bail in early 2024 while he awaited the outcome of his asylum appeal. In July 2024, mere weeks after walking free on bail, Iset Aaron was assassinated on a street in downtown Chishino. A gunman shot him multiple times in the back and head outside a cafe, killing him on the spot. It was a professional hit carried out with the same cold efficiency that had characterized so many murders in this feud. Investigators immediately suspected that this was the long arm of revenge finally catching up with Isizette. The operation had all the markings of the Hacknne Turks, a hired killer, an overseas target, and meticulous planning. Those suspicions were soon reinforced by evidence. An inquiry into Isit’s killing led to the arrest of Topa Hassan, a 58-year-old former lawyer from London, who happened to be Kamal Armagan’s brother-in-law. Prosecutors alleged that Hassan had helped organize the assassination, coordinating with Kamal Armagan to arrange the hit on Isized while he was vulnerably out on bail. If true, it meant that Kamal Armagan, even in his 60s and living in hiding, had never given up on avenging his brother’s death and eliminating his rivals. He had simply waited for the opportune moment. In March 2025, Kamal Armagan was finally arrested by Turkish police, acting on a request from British authorities. After more than 15 years on the run, the man who lit the fuse on this bloody feud was in custody. It felt like the end of an era. The two primary architects of the gang war, Kamal Armagan and Isizet Eron, were now either behind bars or dead. The once-feared leaders of the Hackne Turks and Tottenham Turks had been removed from the board. With Armagan under arrest and Isizette Eron gone, the vicious feud between the Tottenham Turks and Hacknne Turks has largely come to a halt. Many of the other key players have been taken out over the years as well. Zafa Eron and Ali Armagan are long deceased. Hussein and Eron and other relatives were murdered in the crossfire. Kimal Eron remains alive but paralyzed in Turkey, a fugitive far from his old territory. In many ways, the conflict burned itself out, consuming those who kept it alive. In the communities of Tottenham and Hackne, the fear has begun to lift, but deep scars remain. Over 20 lives were lost directly in the feud, and countless others were scarred by the violence. Among the victims were not only gang members, but ordinary people with no part in the rivalry. People like Amit Pac, the shopkeeper, and that 9-year-old girl in Dston, who will carry the consequences of that night for the rest of her life. These tragedies have left an indelible mark on the neighborhoods that served as the battleground. What started as a minor altercation in 2009 spiraled into a year’slong saga of retribution that stretched from the streets of London to towns in Turkey. It was a conflict driven by personal vendettas and sustained by the profits of crime, a deadly dance of revenge that neither side could pull away from. Each act of violence simply paved the way for the next. And for years, it seemed it would never end. In the end, there were no winners, only families left to mourn and communities left to heal. This gang war stands as a grim testament to how once the cycle of vengeance begins, it serves no one and devastates everyone in its path. After so many funerals and so much bloodshed, the streets of North London are quieter now. But the legacy of this feud remains. It is a dark chapter in the city’s history. A cautionary tale of pride, retribution, and the high price paid when violence spirals out of control.