CHP leader slams military firm over 'threatening' ad during TV interview

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Saturday (January 14) joined a live broadcast with veteran journalist Uğur Dündar on TV 100.

During the broadcast, a commercial of SADAT, a controversial private military contractor, appeared for about eight seconds. Appearing at the bottom of the screen, the ad showed armed men in camouflage.

Kılıçdaroğlu reacted to the commercial on Twitter on Sunday morning, saying, "Half-witted paramilitary leftovers, who do you think you are threatening?"

In response to the CHP leader, Melih Tanrıverdi, CEO of the company, said they intentionally placed the commercial during the interview because "SADAT and Kılıçdaroğlu together got the best rating."

"Our advertising department turned this rating into a nice PR work by placing a 1,500-lira ad. Congratulations," he tweeted.

This wasn't the first public spat between Kılıçdaroğlu and SADAT. The CHP leader previously accused the company of "training terrorists" and being a threat to election security.

In May last year, he attempted to visit the company's headquarters in İstanbul, but was not let in.

Speaking to reporters there, he had said, "I want to draw the attention of the public that [they give] unconventional warfare training. Like sabotage, raids, assassination, ambush and terror. This is an organization that trains terrorists."

SADAT denies such accusations and says its main focus is on "facilitating" Türkiye's arms sales, especially to Muslim countries.

Adnan Tanrıverdi, founder of SADAT, was a senior adviser of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan between 2017 and 2019. (VK)