MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : ALL AROUND ERDOGAN’S MAFIA – Turkish journalist and wanted businessman hash out bribery claims on live TV

• Ahval NEWS  – Jun 19 2021 03:17 Gmt+3 -Turkish businessman Sezgin Baran Korkmaz and journalist Veyis Ateş denied each other’s claims over an alleged 10 million euro bribe during a live interview with journalist İsmail Saymaz on Friday.

Ateş was present in the opposition Halk TV’s studios, while Korkmaz called in twice during the broadcast.

The 10 million euro bribe in question was first brought up by journalists Sevilay Yılman and Fatih Altaylı, with the former posting a since-deleted tweet and the latter writing an article. Yılman also wrote an article later on.

In the latest of his nine hour-long tell-all videos that he has been releasing since early May, the infamous mobster Sedat Peker spoke about a luxury hotel owned by Korkmaz where key figures from Turkish politics and judiciary stayed without charge and that he had been notified ahead of time of an investigation that could possibly have resulted in his arrest. Korkmaz left the country shortly after.

According to claims that surfaced after Peker’s video, Ateş allegedly told Korkmaz that he was part of a clique, and that the journalist could help the businessman return to Turkey without facing legal consequences for a payment of 10 million euros.

Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu had called on prosecutors to take the claims seriously and launch investigations, to “find out who this money was for”, as he said in a tweet.

After Ateş said he only “listened to the personal problems that the man spoke about”, Korkmaz called in to the live broadcast and said Ateş had tried to contact him via his lawyer.

“Mr Ateş called me. When I spoke with Mr Ateş, he said he could help me, that there was somebody he could talk to,” Korkmaz said.

“He told me that a clique, a lobbying group that had a problem with me was doing this to me, and that he had met this lobbying group, that they wanted 10 million euros from me. You made this negotiation with me when my friends were in custody,” Korkmaz said.

Ateş encouraged the businessman to “press charges” if he can come to Turkey.

The journalist said he had spoken to Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu to relay the plight of Korkmaz upon the businessman’s request.

“I accepted because he told me his children were left behind in Turkey, that he was alone (abroad), and that he was misunderstood,” Ateş said. “I try to help people when they call with such situations.”

The journalist said he didn’t know why Korkmaz had chosen to call him. “My mistake was taking his call,” Ateş said. “I told him what the minister had said … I told him the way for these things was the law, courts … He said there were lobbies that we could contact … He said he would give whatever it took.”

“If there is such a phone call, where is it? If I demanded 10 million euros, where would I hide 10 million euros?” Ateş continued.

“This country has seen many liars but none without shame like Veyis Ateş,” Peker tweeted during the broadcast.

Ateş was aiming to “gain time” for Soylu “to figure out how to get out of this”, Peker continued. “But he cannot.”

“The reason Sezgin Baran Korkmaz hasn’t made anybody listen to the remaining nine-minute recording has to do with the state’s security. Because cited in it are the names of some high-level people who run the state,” Peker said.

The recording Peker mentioned appears to be the same recording Yılman and Saymaz said they had listened to. Both journalists say they have listened to a three-minute part from the 12-minute-long recording.

Opposition deputy and investigative journalist Ahmet Şık also tweeted during the broadcast, saying Ateş had been “forced to choose to burn himself to protect (Süleyman Soylu) because none of them are clean, but power resides with the one person who is the dirtiest. For now.”

“Veyis Ateş denies that he asked 10 million euros from Sezgin Baran Korkmaz despite a voice recording! Because if he admits to that, he will be asked who it was for. If he denies it, the question is void. Apparently, his big brothers told him to burn himself and protect them!” former minister and opposition deputy Fikri Sağlar said in a tweet.