A journalist has said that notorious Turkish mafia boss Sedat Peker reiterated his promise to release videos containing scandalous revelations about the government’s dirty laundry before the 2023 elections “even if he dies,” local media reported on Wednesday.
Peker, the head of one of Turkey’s most powerful mafia groups and once a staunch supporter of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, left Turkey in early 2020 following the publication of a report related to arms trafficking to Syria that was allegedly carried out under the guise of humanitarian aid.
The mob boss, who lives in exile in the UAE, sent shockwaves across the country in the summer of 2021 through scandalous revelations on social media about state-mafia relations, drug trafficking and murders implicating former and current state officials and their family members.
Peker, who was silent for a long time out of concern for his safety and has been forbidden from broadcasting exposés on the internet, recently became active again on social media, making shocking claims about some pro-government figures. He went silent again after saying in early August that he was saving some of his crucial revelations about political figures in Turkey and would make them two months before Turkey’s parliamentary and presidential elections in 2023 so that the electorate would still remember them when they cast their votes.
During a program on Halk TV on Monday, journalist Seyhan Avşar said, citing people in Peker’s close circle, that he said he would release the videos he had promised “even if he dies.”
“As long as I live, [or] even if I die, I will stand by my word. I will complete the videos I had mentioned and share them with the public through media outlets,” the journalist quoted Peker as saying.
Avşar commented that Peker’s statements were critical because it was the first time the mob boss had given such a clear answer to the question of whether he would reveal the Turkish government’s dirty laundry before the elections.
“We now know, after this answer, that Sedat Peker shared his information, documents, maybe videos with certain individuals. If something happens to him, we will see these videos [and] documents,” the journalist added.
Turkish media reported earlier this month that Peker told people in his close circle that Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu’s recent visit to the UAE was for the purpose of requesting his extradition.
Peker previously claimed that it was connections to his family that had helped Soylu rise through the ranks of the right-wing True Path Party (DYP) before he joined the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2012 at the invitation of then-prime minister and current president Erdoğan. He also claimed that Soylu helped him avoid police prosecution by notifying him that an investigation was being prepared against him, before he fled Turkey in early 2020. The mob boss further said Soylu previously told people that he and Erdoğan “liked” Peker.