Turkish mafia boss dishes dirt on Erdogan team, becomes YouTube phenomenon

In recent times, Turkey has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The fugitive mafia boss Sedat Peker, an ally-turned-foe of the government, has been making headlines with his claims about prominent political figures in Turkey. Through his tell- all videos on YouTube, he has unleashed accusations of rape, drug trafficking, murder and assassinations against top Turkish officials close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and connections to organized crime within Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Most prominent among those implicated are current Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and former Police Chief and Interior Minister Mehmet Agar, while Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak and his brother Serhat Albayrak have also found a mention.
 
In the seventh video released on May 23, 2021, Peker accused former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim's son Erkan Yildirim and former Police Chief and Interior Minister Mehmet Agar of being a part of an international drug trafficking scheme. Peker alleged that Yildirim’s son Erkam had made frequent trips to Venezuela to set up a new international drug trafficking route to Turkey. Yildirim claimed Erkam’s trips were to deliver COVID-19 aid, but his defense backfired when Turkish customs data showed that no such medical equipment left Turkey on the dates in question.
 
In response to Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu’s accusations on the mafia leader being a part of a major international drug trafficking scheme, Peker made shocking claims on a drug bust that took place in Colombia on June 09, 2020. Peker revealed that Cocaine was previously coming to Turkey through Colombia. However, some 4.9 tons of cocaine was caught in June 2020 in that country. Subsequently, work to find a new route started because the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) which was powerful in Colombia kept a tight control. Upon understanding that they can't manage it from there, Turkey turned to Venezuela, which has an 800-kilometer-long border
with Colombia. It was discovered that it is easy to smuggle cocaine from Colombia to Venezuela because the DEA has no controls there. In addition, Peker revealed that Syria's Latakia port, which is not under US control, is also used as a route for drug trafficking.
Peker’s allegations not only include drugs and weapons trafficking but also insinuate long time collaboration between senior Turkish officials and Al-Nusra militants in Syria. In his eighth video released on May 30, he accused the country’s rulers of conspiring with a paramilitary force to send weapons to Al-Qaeda-linked terror groups in Syria.
 
Peker claimed Turkey sent weapons to Al-Nusra Front militants through a paramilitary group named SADAT, formed in 2012 by a retired general and 23 other officers who were expelled from the armed forces due to their Islamist allegiances. The paramilitary company SADAT is closely linked to the Turkish government and allegedly played a role in recruiting and providing training to militants during the Syrian and Libyan civil
wars. In his video, Peker alleges that doing “big business” in Syria requires the permission of not only the presidential head of administrative affairs, Metin Kiratli, but also of pro-government businesspeople and a senior Al-Nusra militant, Abu Abdurrahman.
 
Underscoring the murders of journalists in Turkey, Peker made allegations that former Police Chief and Interior Minister Mehmet Agar and former intelligence official Korkut Eken were responsible for the unsolved murders of journalists Ugur Mumcu and Kutlu Adali. Peker said he was approached by former intelligence official Korkut Eken and Agar to murder journalists Kutlu Adali in Turkish Cyprus in 1996. Turning to Mumcu's
murder, he alleged that Agar had ordered Mumcu's killing because the journalist was writing about "terror lords".
 
Peker’s allegations have rattled the political establishment in Turkey. It seems the government is already losing public support as a survey by the polling company Avrasya suggests that most Turks — 75 percent — believe Peker’s claims. People have long decried the role of the ‘deep state’ in Turkey. Erdogan’s AKP rose to power promising to do away with the deep state, but many think that Erdogan simply replaced one ‘deep state’ with another of his own making. Peker’s accusations have triggered an in-depth look into the country’s deep-state apparatus. Even if a fraction of what Peker says turns out to be true, it will be disastrous for a nation otherwise claiming to be a leader in the global stage. It remains to be seen how the Turkish government will handle the fallout from these serious accusations.