Reis Sedat Peker (; born 26 June 1971) is a

Turkish mafia Turkish mafia ( tr, Türk mafyası) is the general term for criminal organizations based in Turkey and/or composed of (former) Turkish citizens. Crime groups with origins in Turkey are active throughout Western Europe (where a strong Turkish immi ...

boss and whistle-blower who has made various allegations about Turkish politicians and numerous government engagements in illegal activities through his own YouTube channel. He has described himself as a

Pan-Turkist Pan-Turkism is a political movement that emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals who lived in the Russian region of Kazan (Tatarstan), Caucasus (modern-day Azerbaijan) and the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), with its aim bei ...

and

Turanist Turanism, also known as pan-Turanianism, pan-Turanism, or simply Turan, is a pseudoscientific pan-nationalist cultural and political movement proclaiming the need for close cooperation or political unification between people who are claimed by ...

Life

Sedat was born in

Adapazarı Adapazarı () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the central district of Sakarya Province. The province itself was originally named Adapazarı as well. Adapazarı is a part of the densely populated region of the country known as the Marmara Re ...

, in the Turkish

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Sakarya Sakarya may refer to: Places * Sakarya Province, in Turkey ** Sakarya (electoral district) ** Sakarya University * Sakarya (continent), a small continent 90 million years ago * Sakarya River, in Turkey * Sakarya, Polatlı, a village in Ankara Pr ...

. He spent considerable time in Germany. In a 1999 interview with '' Milliyet'' he self-identified as a Pan-Turkist and Turanist. Peker was tried in 1997 for the murder of the drug smuggler Abdullah Topçu, but acquitted. The two other defendants in the same case, alleged to be Peker's employees, were sentenced to life imprisonment. After this, he fled to Romania and was sought for, amongst others,

protection racket A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from viol ...

eering, coercion, and

incitement In criminal law, incitement is the encouragement of another person to commit a crime. Depending on the jurisdiction, some or all types of incitement may be illegal. Where illegal, it is known as an inchoate offense, where harm is intended but ...

to murder. During this time it was reported that Peker had been visited by a minister and a

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

from the Motherland Party and guaranteed, in return for an unknown favor, to be only imprisoned for a short period of time. as 2022 Sedat Peker revealed that favour that secured his release was turning in a cassete footage of then PM

Mesut Yılmaz Ahmet Mesut Yılmaz () (6 November 1947 – 30 October 2020) was a Turkish politician. He was the leader of the Motherland Party ( tr, Anavatan Partisi, ANAP) from 1991 to 2002, and served three times as Prime Minister of Turkey. His first two p ...

being beaten up in Hungary because of his gambling debts On 17 August 1998, Peker was brought to Turkey of his own free will and surrendered to the authorities. The case against him was opened in September 1998. He pleaded guilty to the crimes for which he was accused and was found guilty of building a criminal organization. During the trial, Peker made some remarks without further explanation: ''"An older member of parliament sent me an SMS which said I shouldn't behave too arrogantly. I would like to tell you (the court) everything, because if I don't it could come to pass that I commit suicide under suspicious circumstances."'' The prosecutors requested at least 7½ years' imprisonment, but Peker was only sentenced to eight months and 29 days. He was released on 24 May 1999. On 12 May 2005, he was arrested during ''Operation Butterfly''. On 31 January 2007, he was found guilty of building and leading a criminal organization, robbery, forgery, and two counts of

false imprisonment False imprisonment or unlawful imprisonment occurs when a person intentionally restricts another person’s movement within any area without legal authority, justification, or the restrained person's permission. Actual physical restraint is ...

, and sentenced to 14 years and five months. On 30 May 2008, during his incarceration, Peker married his lawyer, Özge Yılmaz. Peker is allegedly a member of the underground Turkish organization

Ergenekon Ergenekon (sometimes spelled ''Ergeneqon'', mn, Эргүнэ хун, Ergüne khun) is a founding myth of Turkic and Mongolic peoples.

Veli Küçük Veli Küçük (born 9 May 1944, Türkmen, Gölpazarı, Bilecik, TurkeyToday's Zaman, 16 June 2009Ultranationalist Ergenekon suspect is of Armenian origin, magazine reveals/ref>) is a retired Turkish brigadier-general. He is thought to be the fou ...

said in 2008 that Peker was the "son of a friend." On 5 August 2013, Peker was sentenced to ten years in prison as part of the

Ergenekon trials The Ergenekon trials were a series of high-profile trials which took place on 2008–2016 in Turkey in which 275 people, including military officers, journalists and opposition lawmakers, all alleged members of Ergenekon, a suspected secularist ...

; however, he and the other convicts were released a few months later. On 13 January 2016, Peker threatened in a well-attended speech that the academics who signed the petition for peace with the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

(PKK). For this speech he got prosecuted, but acquitted in July 2018. In early 2020, he went from Turkey to

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

, then he left the Balkans to

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

, and later to the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

Whistle-blower

In May 2021, he started a confession video series on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. He accused Tolga Ağar, son of former interior minister

Mehmet Ağar Mehmet Kemal Ağar (born on 30 October 1951) is a Turkish former police chief, politician, government minister and leader of the Democratic Party. He was a police officer who rose to General Director of the General Directorate of Security (effe ...

, of raping and murdering Kazakh student Yeldana Kaharman. In addition, he alleged Mehmet Ağar's role in the killing of

Kutlu Adalı Kutlu Adalı (1935 in Nicosia – July 6, 1996), was a Turkish Cypriot journalist, poet, socio-political researcher, and peace advocate. Background His family emigrated to Antalya, Turkey, when he was three years old. After completing his se ...

, and alleged Ağar's involvement, along with former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım's son Erkam, in an international drug trafficking scheme. He later accused SADAT, founded by retired Brigadier General and former presidential advisor Adnan Tanrıverdi, of being involved in the arms shipment to Al-Nusra Front during the Syrian Civil War. On December 12, 2021, 140journos released a documentary on

featuring him and some prominent journalists and political figures like former Deputy Prime Minister

Bülent Arınç Bülent Arınç (; born 25 May 1948) is a conservative Turkish politician. He served as the 22nd Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey from 2002 to 2007 and as a Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey between 2009 and 2015. Early life and education He w ...

of Turkey. The documentary touched on the impact of the deep state in Turkey on the political and judicial system and how Sedat Peker's involvement with the government scandals started.

References

External links

Sedat Peker's official Website

Peker's Pan-turkic Website

Sedat Peker's YouTube Channel

ya devlet başa, Documentary featuring Sedat Peker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peker, Sedat 1970 births Living people People from Adapazarı People convicted in the Ergenekon trials Pan-Turkists Turanists Turkish nationalists Turkish crime bosses Turkish expatriates in Germany