P.A. Turkey

Sedat Peker videos: Former intelligence chief warns against political assassinations

Videos released by Sedat Peker show that the situation of state-mafia relations in Turkey is much worse than it was in the 1990s, according to Mehmet Eymür, a former head of the Counterterrorism Department of the National Intelligence Agency (MİT).

Over the past couple of weeks, Peker, a well-known convicted mafia leader, has been releasing videos on YouTube, where he makes serious accusations against current and former senior government officials, including murder, rape and seizure of property. Yet no investigation has been opened into the incidents he mentioned.

“People are waiting for videos every day, what more can happen? In his latest video, [Sedat Peker] talks about what the prosecutors should do,” Eymür said in an interview with İsmail Saymaz, a columnist for daily Sözcü.

“I’d like to repeat a statement I made in the past: The end of this course of events will be political murders,” said Eymür.

As Peker’s revelations are compared to the 1996 Susurluk traffic accident, which revealed state-mafia relations at the time, Eymür said the situation is “much worse” today.

“At that time, there was at least a functioning structure. We were doing our duty, we were doing it seriously,” he said.

Bianet