Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
A Kazakh mafia figure, indicted for his alleged involvement in the January 2022 violent protests known as Qandy Qantar (Bloody January) in Kazakhstan, has secured a residence permit in Turkey, granting him a national ID number so that he can conduct transactions with government agencies, establish companies and move funds through Turkish banks and financial institutions despite his criminal background.
According to confidential information obtained by Nordic Monitor, Arman Jumageldiyev, also known as Wild Arman or Arman Dikiy, was granted residence in Turkey and issued an 11-digit national identity number, with the last four digits ending in 7218. Registration records indicate that he declared his date of birth as August 26, 1985.
The former boxer-turned-mafia boss moved to Turkey in 2011 after serving three years in prison in Kazakhstan. Upon his arrival he began collaborating with organized crime networks, engaging in kidnapping, torture and the illegal seizure of money from his victims through the use of guns and brute force.
Despite his criminal background, which included prison time in his home country and known mafia connections, Turkish authorities allowed him to register and establish himself in Turkey. He faced no obstacles in becoming a partner in Turkish companies through which he conducted illegal business dealings.
This implies that he has powerful protectors within Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its close ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who likely assisted him in navigating the red flags that surfaced during his attempts to obtain a national identity number or when he faced legal troubles related to his illegal activities.
The photos he and his mafia contacts in Turkey shared in the past offer clues about the individuals in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government who may have supported him.
Among these photographs are images of his warm encounters with then-Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who was seen happily shaking hands and posing for photos with Jumageldiyev. As a senior member of Erdogan’s ruling party and foreign minister, Çavuşoğlu had the influence to address any difficulties Jumageldiyev might have encountered in Turkey.
Çavuşoğlu, alleged to be a womanizer, has a troubling background that involved his interaction in illegal business dealings. In the past he was accused of being a secretly paid lobbyist for political interest groups in Ukraine while he was serving at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). He reportedly owns a luxury residence in the Vista Chelsea Bridge luxury complex in London and currently serves as head of Turkey’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
In Turkey, the Kazakh mafia figure quickly established close ties with the country’s top mafia boss, Mehmet Kemal Ağar, a former interior minister and police chief who has acted as the key coordinator for various criminal enterprises in Turkey on behalf of President Erdogan.
Jumageldiyev also established connections with Ağar’s subordinates, including Alaettin Çakıcı and Sedat Peker, both of whom are convicted crime bosses and notorious criminal figures. He shared photos of himself presenting traditional Kazakh garments to Peker in 2019 and to Çakıcı in 2021.
The Erdogan government facilitated Çakıcı and Peker’s release from prison and employed them to intimidate opponents and critics of the AKP government. It also obstructed a criminal case related to extrajudicial killings committed by Ağar in the 1990s. Peker later fell out of favor, fled Turkey in January 2020 and now resides in the United Arab Emirates, where he faces an outstanding arrest warrant issued by Turkey.
Çakıcı, with the full backing of the MHP, continues to serve the Erdogan government by managing various criminal enterprises that benefit both the government and its allies. For Jumageldiyev, it was essential to declare his allegiance to Çakıcı to secure his illegal operations in Turkey. During Çakıcı’s visit to Jumageldiyev in March 2021, the Turkish mafia boss expressed his support for him, declaring him a family member. This endorsement indicates that Jumageldiyev secured the protection of an Erdogan-backed mafia figure, enabling him to operate freely in Turkey.
While in Turkey Jumageldiyev worked closely with Azerbaijani mafia figure Nadir Nariman oglu Salifov, also known as Lotu Guli, who was killed by his own bodyguard on August 19, 2020, in Turkey’s resort province of Antalya.
Jumageldiyev was reportedly detained in Turkey in 2018 but was quickly released with the assistance of his contacts among government-backed mafia figures. In November 2019 he abducted Uzbek national Ravshan “Zolotoi” (Golden) Muhiddinov, allegedly under a contract from Gafur Rakhimov, an Uzbek criminal figure sanctioned by the US Treasury. Muhiddinov was held in a room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Istanbul where he was brutally tortured and coerced into agreeing to pay his debt to Rakhimov. Jumageldiyev even posted videos of the torture on his Telegram account.
He managed to evade the reach of Turkish law enforcement agencies following the incident. In May 2021 he illegally detained Russian and Azeri businessmen, identified only by the initials E.K. and D.A., in a luxury residence in Istanbul. There, he tortured them and seized cash totaling $1 million. Although an investigation was launched, and some of Jumageldiyev’s associates were detained with firearms and ammunition, no action was taken against Jumageldiyev himself.
His Instagram account reveals much about his connections. He posted pictures of Turkish President Erdogan and praised him publicly. In a video shared in May 2020 Turkish troops are seen saluting him by name with high-powered rifles in hand. He was the guest of honor at a tournament in Istanbul organized by Turkish Boxing Federation President Eyüp Gözgeç in March 2021, which provided him access to politicians.
His social media account portrays him as displaying far-right nationalist and fundamentalist Islamist characteristics. He frequently gives the “wolf’s head” sign, a signature gesture associated with the MHP in Turkey. The salute has been banned in several European countries.
In one video shared on his Instagram account in 2021, Jumageldiyev was seen reciting the Islamic call to prayer (Azan) in a mountainous area in Bulgaria. He accompanied the video with a message stating that the local Bulgarian residents believed the Ottomans had returned to reclaim their lands upon hearing his Islamic recitation.
A recently circulated video on social media shows him shouting at a judge during a court hearing in Kazakhstan, saying, “I will kill anyone for my religion. Never touch my religion. I will die and kill for my religion. Do you understand me, you devil?!”
Jumageldiyev and several of his men were detained on January 7, 2022 in a special police operation for firearms violations. He later faced multiple charges related to his criminal activities during the January 2022 protests, including leading an organized criminal group, provoking mass disturbance, abduction and armed robbery.
The protests, which were peaceful at the outset and began over rising gas prices, quickly escalated into violent riots. Jumageldiyev was accused of operating illegally under the directives of Ruslan Iskakov, a former head of the Fifth Department of the National Security Committee (KNB), Kazakhstan’s main intelligence and security agency. Iskakov was suspected of orchestrating the violent events with the involvement of criminal elements.
Rizabek Ozharov, head of the Special Prosecutors’ Service of Kazakhstan’s General Prosecutor’s Office, stated that Jumageldiyev and his men kidnapped and illegally detained 24 people during the protests, subjected them to beatings and killed one person. Jumageldiyev’s men were also involved in assaulting a police officer, seizing his service weapon and brutally beating him.
The trial of Jumageldiyev and his men is still ongoing in closed session, with no verdict issued as of yet. His lawyers maintain that their client denies the charges and would accept a suspended sentence.
Although the Erdogan government quietly supported Jumageldiyev’s activities in Turkey and abroad, allowing him to use Turkey as a hub for his operations in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, it publicly backed Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during the January 2022 events. The government remained silent on Jumageldiyev’s activities while he was in Turkey and never disclosed who within the government was protecting him.
Turkey’s government-controlled media, which dominates nearly 95 percent of the country’s media landscape, largely avoided reporting on Jumageldiyev. The state-owned Anadolu news agency published only one report about him, in January 2023, merely citing the charges filed against him by the Kazakh public prosecutor.
It is evident that Turkish authorities are keen to avoid exposing Jumageldiyev’s connections to high-ranking officials in the Erdogan government as this could strain bilateral relations with Kazakhstan. A public statement in support of stability in Kazakhstan during the January 2022 events was likely intended to shield the clandestine work Jumageldiyev had carried out on behalf of the Erdogan government. Ankara appears to have thrown him under the bus once it became clear that Tokayev would withstand the tumultuous events and remain in power.
