Cevheri Güven
A Greek court on Wednesday ruled to arrest and extradite to Turkey Ali Yeşildağ, a former confidant of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who made shocking revelations about the president in May, pending his appeal to the decision, his lawyers told Turkish Minute.
Yeşildağ fled from Turkey to Greece to avoid prosecution due to his revelations about alleged corruption and criminal activities involving Erdoğan and his family and government.
Greek media outlet LIFO reported that Yeşildağ, 54, was detained by Greek police in Evros on Nov. 17 trying to enter Greece illegally. LIFO reported that he was taken to Komotini Prison and sought political asylum in Greece. The businessman, who suffers from Type 1 diabetes, was later released from detention, citing his medical condition.
The court ruled to arrest Yeşildağ today.
The Yeşildağ family has a longstanding relationship with Erdoğan. Hasan Yeşildağ, the eldest brother, served as Erdoğan’s bodyguard during the latter’s imprisonment in 1999. Ali Yeşildağ parted ways with Erdoğan and his own family later due to disagreements.
Yeşildağ came to public attention with the seven videos he had posted on the YouTube account of investigative journalist Cevheri Güven in the run-up-to the general election in May.
He made explosive revelations of how the Erdoğan family made hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains through front companies that on paper were run by their cronies but in reality belonged to themselves.
Yeşildağ was targeted by the government after his videos attracted widespread attention on social media and an investigation was launched into him by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on charges of terrorist organization membership.
Turkey had reportedly had an Interpol Red Notice issued for him due to a previous crime.
Yeşildağ, who was arrested in 2015 on the grounds that he had not served his full sentence for a crime he committed in 1986 and was released from prison in 2020 as part of measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic, said his arrest was a conspiracy against him to keep him silent and under control. He claimed his arrest took place with Erdoğan’s involvement when he wanted to part ways with his own family, which had deprived him of assets, and when his efforts to seek help from Erdoğan all failed.
Yeşildağ faced another arrest warrant issued in 2021 to serve the rest of his sentence, which, according to Turkey’s Justice Ministry, is four years.
In his defense before the Greek court Yeşildağ’s lawyers said he had served his sentence for a crime he had committed at the age of 17 and that the Turkish Ministry of Justice’s justification that he had “not fully served his sentence” after 38 years was only a pretext to silence him.
Yeşildağ was targeted because he had exposed Erdoğan’s corruption, his lawyers said, adding that the case was a political one.
His lawyers also said his wife was detained in Turkey after Yeşildağ’s crossing into Greece and interrogated by the prosecutor’s office, which they say shows that the case is political.
However, the prosecutor’s argument that “Turkey has the right to investigate its citizens” prevailed before the court, and Yeşildağ was arrested again.
The panel of judges ruled that Yeşildağ should be extradited to Turkey.
The extradition is pending appeal as his lawyers took the case to a higher court.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is also investigating Yeşildağ on charges of being a member of the faith-based Gülen movement, which Erdoğan accuses of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016. The group denies any involvement in the coup. As part of the investigation into his alleged Gülen movement membership, one of Yeşildağ’s employees was arrested, and his wife was banned from leaving the country.
In one of his videos Yeşildağ accused Erdoğan of siphoning off $1 billion from a public tender for the operation of an airport in the country’s Antalya province.
He claimed Erdoğan manipulated the tender to ensure that the contract was awarded to a company owned by one of his close associates, who then channeled a portion of the funds to Erdoğan.
In another video, Yeşildağ revealed a corruption scheme involving the misappropriation of $3.5 billion worth of European Union funds earmarked for the improvement of Turkey’s agriculture sector. He alleged that then-minister of agriculture Mehdi Eker, along with his family and close associates, established a network of shell companies to divert the funds for their personal enrichment.
Yeşildağ asserted that he is only sharing information about instances of corruption in which he was personally involved or has firsthand knowledge. He promised to reveal more in future videos, stating that “You will get sick to your stomach in the future.”
