Which tones are hardest, why, and where to start.
The Turkic languages (Turkish/Uyghur/Kazakh) are all non-tonal. Uyghur speakers over 30 struggle to distinguish the four tones — especially T2/T3 and T1/T4 — while younger speakers are clearly better (widespread Mandarin education); in Uyghur children T2 and T3 are confused most, with T3 the most complex. Turkish listeners score below native Mandarin listeners on tone discrimination, on a par with Dutch non-tonal listeners. Note: for Turkish itself the evidence is only indirect; Uyghur/Kazakh are related but distinct languages and cannot serve directly as a Turkish prior.
Source: 张涵 (Reyhan Eraslan). 土耳其学生汉语声调偏误分析及教学策略 | Aksu & Gao (2018), Indiana University CEUS workshop（维吾尔语） | Nijat et al. (2024), Interspeech 2024（维吾尔语儿童） | Zhang & Chen (2018), Kazakh Learners' Production of Mandarin Tones, TAL 2018, 237–241. DOI: 10.21437/tal.2018-48
Group averages tell you where to look, not what you actually do. Two speakers of the same first language can differ a lot. The only way to know is to record yourself and compare.
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