The airing of a commercial for SADAT International Defense Consultancy, a controversial company linked to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during a program on TV100 on which Turkey’s main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu appeared has sparked debate and criticism, the Artı Gerçek news website reported on Monday.
Kılıçdaroğlu, chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), on Jan. 14 appeared on a program on TV100 during which the station aired a commercial for SADAT, a company the CHP leader previously accused of “training terrorists.”
Kılıçdaroğlu also said in May 2022 the firm would be the culprit if an incident threatens the security of the 2023 elections.
Although veteran journalist Uğur Dündar, who hosts the program, initially said the commercial was only seen for eight seconds during their three-hour airtime and wasn’t shown again after it was removed under orders from station management, it was later revealed on that the commercial was aired six times in total during the program, Artı Gerçek said.
Programın içine alınan reklâmlar konusunda hiçbir bilgim, ilgim yok.
Reklâm bölümü bir aydır kullanılan Sadat reklamını, yaklaşık 3 saati bulan bizim programın yayınında sadece 8 saniye kullanmış. Televizyon yönetiminin müdahalesiyle kaldırılmış.
Ve tekrar ekrana getirilmemiş.— Uğur Dündar (@ugurdundarsozcu) January 14, 2023
Kılıçdaroğlu said SADAT’s move to air their commercial during a program he was a guest on was aimed at “threatening” him.
“Who [do you think] you are threatening?” the politician said in a tweet addressed to the firm.
O az kalmış aklınızı alırım sizin, paramiliter artıkları, siz kimi tehdit ediyorsunuz! pic.twitter.com/96G5cmsVhO
— Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (@kilicdarogluk) January 15, 2023
Following the comments by Dündar and Kılıçdaroğlu, TV100’s chief executive Alican Değer also made a statement, saying that the airing of the commercial was a “political mistake” made by the channel’s advertising staff due to their “lack of political knowledge.”
SADAT, Turkey’s first domestic military consultancy firm and a paramilitary organization, was established by former Erdoğan aide Adnan Tanrıverdi and 23 retired military officers and on Feb. 28, 2012.
According to SADAT’s founding documents, its mission is to make the Islamic world self-sufficient in terms of military power. Retired general Tanrıverdi said SADAT was set up at the request of officials from Erdoğan’s government.
The firm has attracted growing scrutiny over US allegations that it trains Syrians who then are deployed to support pro-Turkish forces in war zones such as Libya.
Meanwhile, Melih Tanrıverdi, CEO of SADAT and the son of its founder Adnan Tanrıverdi, said they deliberately chose to air the commercial during a program on which Kılıçdaroğlu was appearing, claiming that a member of the CHP informed them of the date of the broadcast.
The management of TV100 then issued a statement saying they had fired the channel’s advertising manager and a broadcast executive as part of precautions they took to prevent the same thing from happening again.
İlhan Taşcı, a member of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) from the CHP, on Monday said in a tweet that he had submitted a petition asking the broadcasting watchdog to examine the broadcast since the station advertised a paramilitary structure with a “threatening image” used as part of a plan.
CHP Genel Başkanı Sayın Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu yayındayken reklam görüntüsü adı altında “planlanmış” tehdit içerikli görselle paramiliter yapının reklamını yapan TV100 kanalının yayının incelenmesi için RTÜK’e dilekçe verdim.
RTÜK bunu görmezden gelemez, yok sayamaz.
Dilekçem ekte👇 pic.twitter.com/3ccF7ojO6d— İlhan Taşcı (@ilhantasci) January 16, 2023
In June 2021 Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), rejected a parliamentary motion to investigate SADAT’s controversial activities after Turkish mob boss Sedat Peker claimed SADAT had sent weapons to the al-Nusra Front in Syria in 2015.
Peker also alleged that SADAT could possibly carry out assassinations of dissidents living in Turkey and abroad in the near future.
