The 2000 Istanbul raids () were Turkish raids on safehouses operated by the Kurdish Hezbollah on January 17, 2000. The raids resulted in the death of Hüseyin VelioÃÂlu, and severely weakened Hezbollah. The main raid was in Beykoz, while other raids were done in ÃÂsküdar and ÃÂmraniye. The raids were described as being the events that marked the beginning of Hezbollah's âÂÂdeclineâÂÂ.
Following increasing tensions between the Hezbollah and Turkey, Niyazi Palabñyñk, who was the Deputy Chief of Police, of the Intelligence Branch Directorate of the Turkish General Directorate of Security during the premiership of Bülent Ecevit, was the leader of the raid. A few days before the raid, he spoke against rebel groups and stated âÂÂlook at a person's hand, after the hand comes the fingers. If the PKK is the thumb, the index finger is Hezbollah! The main purpose of these is to establish a state through Kurdish nationalism.â A villa on Mühendis Street in Kavacñk in Beykoz was found before the operation, and it was confirmed to be an operations center operated by Hezbollah, it was also confirmed that in the house were Hüseyin VelioÃÂlu, the general leader of Hezbollah, as well as Edip Gümüà Â, the leader of Hezbollah's military wing, and Cemal Tutar, a high-ranking member of the military wing. It was the main target of the raid. According to Palabñyñk, GümÃ¼à  alone was responsible for the deaths of over 250 Turkish civilians, businessmen, law enforcement, and activists.
Niyazi Palabayñk announced that the Turkish police âÂÂpressed the buttonâ on January 17, 2000 and raided the Beykoz villa. They had a meeting at the police station before the raid. After coming to a conclusion that it was a cell house belonging to Hezbollah, they started the operation. The police were instantly met with heavy bullets as they came near the house. VelioÃÂlu engaged in a shootout with the police as they entered the house, and was shot to death alongside another Hezbollah member. The police left, while GümÃ¼à  and Tutar attempted to destroy the technology in the house in an attempt to destroy evidence. The police returned and arrested them. The police later took out the memory cards, which were undamaged, and, with the help of IBM, extracted 180 thousand pages of documents, which included Hezbollah's future plans against Turkey, as well as previous crimes which included murders, kidnappings, and tortures. It also included information on Hezbollah's structure.
After questioning GümÃ¼à  and Tutar, the Turkish police raided a Hezbollah cell house in ÃÂsküdar, finding bomb-making materials, and 10 dead bodies buried by making a pig bond and covered in concrete. One of the bodies had a nail in his skull, some bodies had their arms and legs broken or removed, and all showed signs of torture.
At a raid on a Hezbollah cell house in ÃÂmraniye, the body of ðzzettin Yñldñrñm was found. On a separate raid on April 27, 2009, Turkish police found a video of the murder of ðzzettin Yñldñrñm, which showed signs of his torture for days before his murder. Yñldñrñm was murdered by the pig bond method as well.
After the raids, more than 200 graves were found in Hezbollah cell houses.
On April 2, 2019, the house was put up for sale for 2,142,000 Turkish lira after being abandoned for 19 years.