When exposing scandals and fighting corruption, whistleblowers often take massive risks. To express doing something "at the cost of" or "at the risk of" a severe consequence, Turkish uses the word pahasına.
This word stems from paha (price or value). Combined with a possessive and dative suffix, pahasına literally means "at its price."
Nouns + pahasına
If the risk is a noun—such as exile, prison, or death—simply place the bare noun directly before pahasına. No additional case markers are needed on the noun.
| At the cost of exile, she will expose the secrets of her former boss. | Sürgün pahasına, eski patronunun sırlarını ifşa edecek. |
| He will do everything at the cost of death in order to expose the corruption and stop the gang. | Yolsuzluğu ifşa etmek ve çeteyi durdurmak için ölüm pahasına her şeyi yapacak. |
Verbs (-mAk) + pahasına
When the risk or cost is an action (like losing a job or being shut down), use the full infinitive form of the verb (-mak or -mek) immediately followed by pahasına.
| He exposed this massive corruption at the cost of losing his job. | İşini kaybetmek pahasına bu büyük yolsuzluğu ifşa etti. |
| The newspaper is publishing that brave headline at the cost of being closed down. | Gazete, kapatılmak pahasına o cesur manşeti yayımlıyor. |
The Price of Oppression
While pahasına is frequently used for heroic sacrifices, it can also describe the extreme lengths bad actors will go to protect their secrets. In these cases, it implies they took an action "even if it meant" causing harm, intimidating others, or committing a crime to achieve their goal.
| The gang protected the secrecy at the cost of silencing the journalist. | Çete, gazeteciyi susturmak pahasına gizliliği korudu. |
| The manager applied censorship at the cost of intimidating and silencing the workers. | Müdür, işçileri yıldırmak ve susturmak pahasına sansür uyguladı. |
