Turkey: mafia boss's explosive accusations

Videos of the Turkish exiled mafia boss Sedat Peker continue to cause controversy in Turkey. In now seven Youtube videos which have been viewed over 70 million times, Peker has accused high-ranking AKP politicians of more and more involvement in organised crime, from drug deals to rape and contract killings. Peker has been considered a key supporter of the president since his release from prison in 2014. What is going on here?

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Yetkin Report (TR) /

Erdoğan actually benefitting from the situation

Yetkin Report finds it suspicious that the president has neither commented on the accusations nor taken any action to prevent dissemination of the videos:

“Gagging the Internet, hastily passing a ban on broadcasting, blocking sites - all these measures are taken as soon as there's the slightest buzz or campaigning on social media. But not so with the Peker videos, which are announced days in advance. ... Erdoğan can no longer countenance these unsavoury connections. The conservatives within the AKP have also had enough of them. ... Seen in this light, one can say that the more Peker talks, the easier it is for Erdoğan to purge his entourage.”

Sabah (TR) /

Biden doing all he can to hinder Turkey

The whole series is a Washington set-up, says the pro-government daily Sabah:

“The Biden administration is trying to stage a certain scenario because they see Erdoğan as a major hindrance who over the last 19 years and against all odds has built a completely independent Turkey that is a regional and global leader out of a Turkey that the US used to direct and dominate. ... Just as it tried to do in the past with the 28th February [military coup of 1997] and the 17-25 trial [over an AKP corruption scandal], it continues to try to stage this scenario with ever more formidable operations.”

Cumhuriyet (TR) /

The fault lies with the presidential system

Turkey's increasingly authoritarian government has played a decisive role in undermining society, Cumhuriyet believes:

“Once again, concerns about the degeneration of the state are on the agenda. The abolition of the 'parliamentary democratic regime' and its replacement with a 'one-person state' that goes by the name of 'presidential system' and is linked to only one person - i.e., a system in which the relations, feelings and thoughts of one person dominate the state - is undoubtedly playing a major role in the fact that these concerns are surfacing.”

Yetkin Report (TR) /

Peker is no national hero

Just because the mafia boss is exposing the state's dirty laundry this doesn't make him innocent, warns Murat Yetkin in Yetkin Report:

“First a warning to young people. Sedat Peker, whose videos we have been watching in recent days as if he were a social media influencer, is not an opposition figure who was forced to flee the country for political reasons. Nor is he a Robin Hood who gives to the poor what he takes from the rich. And nor is he a national hero who has made it his duty to clean up the country's sewers. ... He is a member of the criminal underworld.”