Soylu: Peker given a police guard 1.5 years before my term in office

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Archive

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Attending a live broadcast on state channel TRT, Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu has spoken about the allegations of Sedar Peker, who is accused of leading a criminal organization and has fled Turkey.

Defining Peker's statements as an "international operation", Soylu has said that he gave the instruction to launch a police operation against Peker: "I was the one who launched this operation. I set a lingering operation into motion. I myself led the operation in Bursa."

Noting that there is also an operation in İzmir and İstanbul, he has noted that "it was himself who relaunched the operation in İstanbul after months", defining it as a "mistake that its beginning was not announced."

Police guard

Süleyman Soylu has also talked about Sedat Peker's allegations that a police guard was given to him by Soylu himself.

Soylu has said that Peker was "given a guard 1.5 years before his term in office", adding that the guard has been withdrawn during his term in office as the Minister. "The state assigns guards from time to time. Today, the ones in the Kobani trial also have guards," the Minister has said.

"So that a quarrel will not be provoked, so that no provocation will come up," he has explained the reason for giving guards.

Özışık brothers

Minister Soylu has also mentioned the recordings of two video calls between Sedat Peker and journalist Hadi Özışık.

Touching upon these videos posted by Peker, Süleyman Soylu has said the following about Hadi and Süleyman Özışık brothers:

"They are people that I have known for years. I have such a past: During Ms. Tansu Çiller's term, I had an important activity in İstanbul's media. I developed my bilateral relations. It was a tiring job. All in all, I had several acquaintances, I had several friends.

"These two friends... I know Mr. Hadi Özışık from the time when he was working as a photojournalist for Günaydın newspaper.

"(...) My being informed about the mediation means my capital punishment. Can such a thing be thought of? They apparently stuttered. What can I do? Whoever stuttered is to be brought to account; whichever politician is sent 10 thousand dollars a month is to be brought to account. What they wrote has mistakenly ended up somewhere."

'My duty ends with news in Official Gazette'

Soylu has also said that "the target is the Turkish state" in these recent developments, adding that "they will not let those people who have been backed for years by the ones waging a psychological, irregular warfare through Turkey under the tutelage of some people."

"Süleyman leaves, Ahmet comes in and does not let it. Where does my duty as a Minister of Interior end? In the Parliamentary system, it used to end with a bilateral decree and now it ends with a news to be issued in the Official Gazette at 2, 3 in the morning," he has added. (EKN/SD)