Sedat Peker claims Erdoğan aides organize illicit oil trade, arms delivery to 'terror' groups in Syria

Peker says he is currently in Dubai but there has been no official confirmation of his whereabouts. 

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In the eighth episode of his online confessions, mafia boss Sedat Peker talked about alleged arms deliveries to an al-Qaeda branch in Syria and illicit trade in the country.

He pointed out two of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's aides, who he said were responsible for organizing such activities.

One of them is retired Brigadier General Adnan Tanrıverdi, the founder and the head of SADAT private military company.

Peker accused SADAT of sending weapons and equipment that he had paid for to the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, in 2018. Tanrıverdi was a senior advisor to the president at the time. He resigned in January 2020.

The Nusra Front rebranded itself as the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in 2016 and merged with other groups in 2017 to form the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which currently controls most of Syria's Idlib province, where Turkey also has a military presence.

In early 2018, Peker had shared photos of equipment he had sent to the Free Syrian Army on social media. Dozens of pickups, hundreds of body armors and other equipment were shown in the photos.

"Dozens of 4x4 off-road vehicles from Sedat Peker to the Free Syrian Army" read the cards on the cars in the photo posted on Instagram by Peker in March 2018.

It was a project that he discussed with an MP from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the time, he said in today's (May 30) video.

"He conveyed this idea to the necessary places. And then they said, 'We can give you additional trucks and they can go together with your trucks.' Our trucks were going as 'the Sedat Peker aid convoy'," said Peker.

"We were giving pictures to the press. We were sending all the equipment. But other vehicles were also going [to Syria] under my name. We thought that these were going to Turkmens in other places.

"We didn't know what was inside them. I mean, there were weapons, I'm not a naive child ... And this was normal, something that should happen.

"But this was not organized by the MİT [National Intelligence Agency] or the military. This was organized by SADAT, by a team inside the SADAT.

"I bought everything with my own money, except for those. But they were sent to Syria under my name. There were no procedures, no registries. They would directly cross [into Syria]."

He was later informed by his "Turkmen friends" that some of the pickups he sent to Syria had been delivered to the Nusra Front members, said Peker.

SADAT immediately denied Peker's claims, saying on Twitter that what he did was confessing that he had been smuggling weapons to Syria under the name of humanitarian aid.

"We call on the slanderers to prove their slanders and deliver the documents they have to the prosecutor's office," it said. "In his video, Peker confesses that he sold weapons to terrorist groups. But our company has no relation whatsoever with the weapons that were sold to terrorist groups."

"Let's open Pandora's box"

About the alleged illicit trade in Syria, Peker pointed out Methin Kıratlı, the head of the Presidency Administrative Affairs.

"Let's open Pandora's box. Do you know what you should do to trade in Syria? There is Mr. Metin Kıratlı, the chair of the Presidency Administrative Affairs, in the Presidential Complex. You go to him," he said.

"I'm not talking about the dealings of one or two trucks. Illegal crude oil, tea, sugar, aluminum, copper, second-hand cars... Billions of dollars, big money.

"... When you get the approval from [Metin Kıratlı], they send you to the MT Group. Murat Sancak [MT Grup Board Chair], Ramazan Öztürk, all [members] of the hierarchy are there.

"After their approval, you go to the al-Nusra officer responsible for economics: Abu Abdurrahman, he also uses the Abu Shayma alias.

"This is how trade is done as well. You can't do big business there outside of what I've explained."

The next video will be about Erdoğan

After staying silent for weeks, President Erdoğan talked about Peker's videos on Wednesday, claiming that they were a part of a plot targeting Turkey.

"I wish big brother Tayyip would intervene in the affairs and resolve them. As there is a lot of data, documents and words. But, I don't know why he chose to believe them, not me" said Peker, adding that he would talk about the president in his next video.

"Mr. President, big brother Tayyip, said, without mentioning my name, that this is an international conspiracy and I'm at the center of it. 'You'll see, we'll find and bring him here,' he said.

"No problem, the state can find and take me. But will finding and taking me change the truths, big brother Tayyip?

"If I'm a spy who is involved in an international conspiracy, I'll sit down and talk in front of you as a brother in the next video, big brother Tayyip."

Peker also said he stood with Erdoğan when he had no power. After his video, "big brother Tayyip" [#TayyipAbi] became a trending topic on Twitter in Turkey. 

The mafia boss says he has personally known Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu, whom he describes as "a man I had invested in for years," and Erdoğan for over 20 years.

CLICK - After weeks of silence, Erdoğan defends interior minister against crime boss's claims

The Sedat Peker videos

Formerly a pro-government figure, Peker had to leave the country in 2019 to avoid arrest. He began his revelations on YouTube in early May, after, according to him, Minister Soylu failed to keep his promise that he would return to the country in April.

Peker has targeted several former and current government officials in his videos, accusing them of international drug trafficking, politicial assassinations, sexual assault and murder. Minister Soylu, former Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar, his son and AKP deputy Tolga Ağar, and former PM Binali Yıldırım's son Erkam Yıldırım are among his high-profile targets. 

Peker's videos have received over 70 million views since early May. The government has dismissed some of his claims while remaining silent about some others.

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(RT/VK)