MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : THE SEDAT PEKER MOBSTER & THE ERDOGAN GOVERNMENT

Turkey’s Süleyman Soylu ‘handed out AK-47s’ during coup attempt, alleges mobster Sedat Peker – Ahval NEWS Jul 09 2021 10:51 Gmt+3

Convicted crime boss Sedat Peker made a series of new accusations against Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on Thursday, saying the minister had illegally armed civilian groups during and after the July 2016 coup attempt.

In a series of posts on the social media platform Twitter, Peker said a white car loaded with “a case of Kalashnikovs” was taken to Balat, a conservative neighbourhood in Istanbul, as elements in the military sought to seize power on the night of July 15, 2016.

“Osman Tomakin came to take the delivery (of weapons) in a black Passat,” Peker said, referring to a high-profile supporter of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The car was registered to the provincial chairman of the AKP’s youth wing, ensuring it “wouldn’t be stopped by police”, the mobster said.  The chairman of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) youth branch and an Interior Ministry civil servant were also involved in the distribution of the illicit weapons, he added.

Peker’s claims have been rocking Turkish politics since May, when he began releasing lengthy videos detailing allegations of criminal activity against senior members of the AKP government.

Last month, the mobster said he would temporarily suspend the broadcasts, citing warnings from local officials in his current location, reported to be the United Arab Emirates.

He has since continued to use Twitter to make further accusations and answer questions from the public.

Soylu provided the weapons used by civilians who sought to storm the offices of the Turkish Radio Television Institute (TRT) after the national broadcaster had been seized by soldiers during the coup attempt, Peker said in his most recent posts to the platform.

“These weapons are not registered in the state inventory,” he added.

Peker, a staunch Turkish nationalist, said he did not object to ordinary citizens being armed.

“I believe that such structures should exist, I defend the spirit of the Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa,” he said, referring to the secret committee responsible for counter-intelligence operations during the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

However, he said, Soylu continued to distribute weapons after the threat of a military takeover had subsided.

The interior minister was backed by a “dubious organisation” that wanted him to replace President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the mobster said.

“The biggest part of a plot to provoke national and religious sentiment and stir up a civil war is these weapons you distributed to many organisations under the table after July 15,” he added.

Responding to an inquiry by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Gamze Taşçıer, the government said 106,704 items were missing from armed forces’ inventory, some of which “appear to be the weapons that were distributed during the July 15 coup attempt”.

“I submitted a written inquiry on Jan. 23, 2019 for Süleyman Soylu to answer, and the response came over a year later,” Taşçıer said. “I wanted to learn what happened to the weapons that got lost on July 15, but it appears that I asked the wrong man.”

At least one murder was committed two weeks after the failed coup using a weapon handed out in front of the Ankara Police Directorate, Taşçıer said.

“Sedat Peker is openly accusing Süleyman Soylu of founding and managing an armed illegal organisation,” said journalist Can Dündar.

Meanwhile, academic Karabekir Akkoyunlu said Peker’s new revelations were the most serious yet: “It is claimed the interior minister has a secretive, armed organisation loyal to himself. On behalf of whom, with whose arms, against whom? Are there any other groups?”