The gangland killings and senseless knife crime that claims almost daily lives of innocent young teenagers on the streets of London grab the headlines. What does go unnoticed and unreported are the horrific levels of suicides amongst the young people in the UK. This is no more profound than what we are witnessing among the Turkish young men in London. Amongst this group of young men, the suicide rate is disproportionate and alarming. By enlarge, the suicides are confined to particular areas of London and largely amongst men.

Shootings and knife related murders accounted for 27 deaths across London in 2007. This is an alarming increase of 50% on the year before and a grim reality of the state of London. Scores of young people have lost their lives needlessly on the streets of London.  All this has been contributed to by easy access to knives and lethal weapons and then used to settle scores by young people. Four young people, Mehmet Ozer, Etem Celebi, Eren Anil and David Nowak from the Turkish community lost their lives in 2007 to such incidents, some were bystanders and some happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.