Chemistry student kills parents by giving them cyanide

İZMİR – Demirören News Agency

A chemistry university student is accused of killing his parents by serving them a potassium cyanide-laced syrup. Cyanide is a highly toxic chemical and can cause death at high concentrations.

Mahmut Can Kalkan, 21, also allegedly tried to persaude his two siblings, aged 16 and 4, to drink the poisoned “syrup,” but the 16-year-old, E. Kalkan, resisted, causing the deadly cocktail to spill. Although the two siblings did not drink the cyanide, they experienced effects from exposure.



The poisoning occurred at the Kalkan family’s home in the Aegean province of İzmir’s Bayraklı district.

According a confession by Kalkan, a chemistry student at Izmir’s Dokuz Eylül University, he ordered the potassium cyanide through an online website and prepared the syrup using the toxic substance. Kalkan gave the mixture to his parents, telling them: “I have prepared an interesting syrup; taste it.”

After drinking the mixture, Fatma and Mehmet Kalkan reportedly lost partial consciousness. But later, Fatma Kalkan collected herself and asked for help from neighbors, who came to the house and noticed the toxic substance’s odor. They then notified the police and health officials.

All the five members of the Kalkan family were hospitalized, and officials evacuated their apartment flat as a precaution. Mehmet Kalkan and Fatma Kalkan died at the hospital, despite doctors’ efforts.

The 16-year-old sibling experienced temporary blindness from exposure to the toxic substance. But his eyesight gradually recovered after treatment.

Mahmut Can Kalkan confessed to the police in his initial testimony that he killed his parents. He was reported to have told his parents: “You have only 10 minutes left” after making them drink his “syrup.”

He was then sent to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, which diagnosed him with schizophrenia. He was later arrested on a court order.

Kalkan reportedly experienced psychological problems recently, especially after he incurred large financial losses due to online businesses he was managing.

Meanwhile, the tragedy highlighted the accessibility of cyanide, which can be bought without any authority checking the process.

Officials from the Trade Ministry said that there is no limitation on the sale of cyanide because it is not on the government’s list of banned chemicals.

Officials from the Environment and Urbanization Ministry, which is responsible for preparing the banned chemicals list, said that Turkey’s environmental legislation is in line with that of the European Union.

“Whichever chemicals are banned to be sold in the EU, the same is the case for us. Whatever can be sold in the EU also can be sold in Turkey. Within the context, the sale of cyanide is free,” they said.