Adnan Tanrıverdi, the founder of SADAT, a Turkish defense firm widely seen as Ankara’s secret weapon in wars in North Africa and the Middle East, died on Sunday at the age of 79, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Turkish media.
Tanrıverdi founded the private military company in 2012 and was also a high-ranking advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan between 2016 and 2020.
Tanrıverdi was a brigadier general whose service ended during the purge of Islamist influences from the traditionally secular military in 1996. in 2012 he founded SADAT International Defense Consultancy.
SADAT came under international scrutiny for its clandestine role in promoting Turkish interests abroad, although Tanrıverdi’s son and current head of the company, Melih Tanrıverdi, told AFP in 2021 that it had “nothing to do with being a mercenary organization.”
The company’s manifesto on its website states that it wants to establish a “Defense Collaboration and Defense Industry Cooperation among Islamic Countries to help [the] Islamic World take the place where it merits among Superpowers.”
The proposed scope of action extends from North Africa to the Middle East and parts of Central and Southeast Asia.
An AFP investigation in May found that SADAT was responsible for recruiting pro-Turkish mercenaries from Syria and sending them to Niger to protect Turkish interests and projects, particularly mines.
And in 2020 the United States said that SADAT had sent teams to Libya to train Syrian fighters supporting the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
The Syria Justice and Accountability Center also said that SADAT was “responsible for the international air transport of mercenaries” to Libya and Azerbaijan, which was then at war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
When questioned in May, the Turkish Ministry of Defense told AFP that “all these allegations are false ….”