Striking claim from Sedat Peker: Afghan and Syrian crime cartels will form in Turkey!

Sedat Peker, a crime organization leader currently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and subject to an arrest warrant on allegations of establishing an organized crime syndicate, made striking statements to Sözcü columnist Saygı Öztürk.

Peker made the following remarks regarding the operations carried out by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya against criminal organizations:

"My close circle knows it too. I had described the events that would unfold today years in advance. This is not something that belongs to us — it belongs to humanity. Every era has its own texture, its own colour. Take a child whose family has no financial means. His father has died, or gone to prison, or left for some reason. His mother goes out to clean houses somewhere. This child lives in the worst shantytown, and right next to that shantytown stand towering skyscrapers.

The shantyhouse is here, the skyscraper is here, and that child's mother goes to serve the people living in those skyscrapers. Maybe she is treated badly, maybe she is sexually harassed at the places she goes to. That child is a proud child and says, "What kind of a man am I?" He says, "She gave birth to me — how can I not save my mother?" With the first easy money he gets his hands on, he gets a car. He looks at his peers, they have better ones. He immediately wants to fit in with them. First he earns a little money.

Maybe he does some time in prison, but because he's young he doesn't serve much. Then he looks around and sees a car under him, his clothes getting nicer. At 17 or 18 he has access to everything. He tries to give his mother a good life. He says, 'If I have to die young, at least let me die happy like this.'

"IT HAPPENED IN 3 COUNTRIES"

This psychology is not unique to Turkey. I am not making this sociological observation as the smartest person in the world. The same thing happened in Brazil. There, power shifted from major criminal families to other structures.

It also happened in Mexico and Colombia. The cartels don't go and kill people themselves. Turkey is essentially in a very dangerous situation; there is something else that will happen. The state needs to take precautions here. The same thing that happened in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia—'bad human nature' is the same everywhere, it doesn't change. It will happen in Turkey too.

"NEW STRUCTURES ARE FORMING"

What will happen? There are some officer acquaintances who have separated from the state, been dismissed from the military, or left the military after completing their mandatory service — young, reckless, violence-prone types.

How those serving in the state have their peers who served in the state in Colombia—I don't mean it like our February 28 process or anything like that. I'm not talking about a few special operations structures. It becomes a problem the moment they form tougher, radical groups that are completely criminal but also structurally based on military or special operations/police backgrounds, making them impossible to catch because they know the working systems of the police and the military.

Turkey is lagging behind because our family structure has not broken down. But the process is always the same. First come family-style outfits. Then young street gangs that form on the streets. And then the structures that establish large cartels that have broken away from the state.

In my view, Turkey will evolve into such a structure within three to five years. If these cartels that gather these youth groups under their umbrella emerge, then consider the number of casualties to be higher than the number of officials martyred by the PKK; because if you look at Mexico or Colombia, the number of people killed in cartel wars in a single year there exceeds the number of people martyred by the PKK in 40 years.

I foresee such a danger coming to Turkey. If we come to the traditional part of the question — that is, what our era was like — my name and the names of some of my friends who have nationalist sentiments and religious sensitivities are strongly associated with violence. We had our own rules. But every age has its own system. So we cannot blame today's friends, the young friends, without first eliminating this sociological collapse.

Why can't we blame them? As I said, they grow up in shanty towns. Skyscrapers right next to them. While the children of the wealthy cruise around in cars, these young people have nothing on their backs, nothing to their name. They don't even pay minimum wage. If they work somewhere, they don't register them for social security. Now, when these kids turn to this — that side of things also needs to be considered. If this cannot be eliminated — this system where income inequality and shanty towns coexist alongside those skyscrapers — these children, these young people, will only continue to grow stronger in this way.

"METH IS PRODUCED IN TURKEY"

Stating that methamphetamine-style pills are now produced in Turkey, Sedat Peker evaluated the spread of drug use in Turkey with these words:

“Meth production is not something that requires large production sites like heroin. Even a 60-square-meter apartment is enough for this meth production. The very heavy odor that heroin emits during production does not occur during methamphetamine production at an intensity that would attract people's attention in the surrounding area.”

Previously, it was coming from Iran and Far East Asian countries. This means paying for shipping and giving money to the people they bribed while passing through customs, which increases the cost. Now, the person produces it in Turkey and sells it here. They only bring the chemical substances for it from abroad.

"WATCH OUT FOR THE COVERED BAZAAR"

There is also something else that is very dangerous. When Syrians first came to Turkey, they worked alongside street dealers — as the lower tier of the operation — distributing one- or two-gram packets. In other words, the street dealers kept them on so they themselves would not have to take the risk. Later, those foreigners became street dealers themselves. After working as street dealers, they learned the trade better and moved up, rising to a position where they were distributing to entire districts.

Many MET laboratories are now after these individuals. Gold smuggling is also significant. I am not saying this to disparage Syrians — I am simply making an observation: Syrian and Afghan groups appear to have taken control of roughly fifty percent of illicit gold inflows and outflows at the Grand Bazaar.

"TURKS WILL BE WIPED OUT OF THE MARKET"

Those who came to Turkey also took over the system of sending money to their relatives abroad. They have reached the point where they can transfer drug money and black money. The police can catch Turkish groups very easily. But since Syrian groups are closed off within themselves, it is not really possible for the police to get information or for the police to insert informants into their business.

In other words, in 6-7 years, Afghans and Syrians will wipe a significant portion of Turkish groups out of the market in criminal circles. This is something scientific, statistical, and something I have experienced myself. It is a very great danger, and it is useful to draw attention to it."

"WHENEVER THERE IS A MEATBALL CONVERSATION, MY NAME IS MENTIONED WITH KÖFTECİ YUSUF"

Sedat Peker also spoke about Köfteci Yusuf, which came to the agenda with a 'pork meat' scandal.

Saygı Öztürk reminded Peker of the 53-page indictment which states that people told Köfteci Yusuf owner Yusuf Akkaş, "We will spread that there is pork in your restaurants, then we will have this written somewhere for money." Peker said the following:

"I AM NOT A DEFENDANT IN THAT CASE"

"I am not a defendant in that case. This incident happened between me and the then-Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu. I do not personally know Köfteci Yusuf. I was going to hold a rally in Gürsu. They handed me a phone. My acquaintance with Yusuf Akkaş came about over the phone. I have no knowledge of what the others were up to — whether it was about a meat-cutting facility they were going to sell, or what they were talking about. Nor did we discuss anything related to that. Among those individuals there are people we know."

But I know hundreds of thousands of people like them. I mean, the people who made me talk to that friend are not my first-degree relatives within that family framework. There is no section about me in the Yusuf incident in the file. There is no call, message, or any record of mine."

"'GO TAKE IT TO COURT,' HE SAID"

I am, of course, an honourable man of integrity. If you accuse a man of drug use and dealing, you need to catch him with drugs and put them in front of him. And if you are accusing someone of selling food containing pork, you need to publish something like "Such-and-such tonnes of pork were seized in the warehouses" in a way that leaves no room for doubt in people's minds. It is also wrong to publish reports that cast suspicion on a company recognised as a Turkish brand and employing 12 thousand people alongside it, and to conduct investigations in this manner.

I don't want injustice to be done even to the person who did me wrong. Süleyman Soylu sent him a message. He said, 'Go and file a complaint immediately.' He went out of cowardice. If he had a little courage, he would have stood tall. He should have said, 'Why should I say something that doesn't exist?' The process consisted of this. Also, it doesn't make sense; there is no pork, there is nothing. But whenever there is a meatball conversation, my name is mentioned with Köfteci Yusuf. Believe me, I haven't even eaten his meatballs."

"I AM LEGALLY AT EASE"

Speaking about the 'Red Notice' against him, Peker stated that he is legally at ease.

"When I come to Turkey, there is no accusation against me that will last more than an hour. Well, I'm not thinking of coming right now," said Sedat Peker, explaining how he became a defendant:

"I am not saying this to cast aspersions on a gentleman who is one of the AK Party's lawyers. When I had problems with Süleyman Soylu, a lawsuit was filed against me 1.5 years later. The lawyer who filed the lawsuit, who had served in the AK Party and was a party member, later became a prosecutor and shortly after started looking at organized crimes. They suddenly took my file from the old prosecutor and gave it to this gentleman. This gentleman also filed a lawsuit in a short time and made me a defendant in the case 1.5 years later. In other words, an arrest warrant was issued against me based on hostility formed with only one person. So, we were tried in the Köfteci Yusuf incident without me even eating his meatballs."

Sedat Peker described his days in the UAE as follows:

"If all goes well, I will finish university next year. I will be graduating from the International Relations department. It would not be appropriate for me to name my university for security reasons. So, I am not sitting idle abroad. Whatever the circumstances, I will not give up the fight."

I spend most of my day reading books I had brought from Turkey. I love the books of travelers very much. The books of travelers from the 1400s, 1500s, 1600s, and 1700s leave very deep impressions on me. Especially the foreign ones, but I also read the Turkish ones.

I have them collected from second-hand booksellers. They systematically send the books here every week or ten days. Apart from reading books, I try to pay great attention to my health. I plan a long-term life struggle, provided that sadness and low morale do not harm my health and if there is no bad thing in fate. I partially do my sports and walks."

"THIS IS A PEACEFUL COUNTRY"

Peker, who lives in the UAE, said of Dubai: "This is a peaceful place. Nobody bothers anyone," and added:

"The population is 1 million, but there are 13 million foreigners. They have made these 13 million people adapt to this 1 million in such a way that, believe me, if a woman walked alone from one end of the country to the other, no one would even look up. I mean, the laws are that deterrent.

For example, let's say you dropped your watch or lost something. Believe me, no matter how much time passes, you can go and get it from there. Theft is zero, the crime rate is zero. Such an order has been established. Our country has 85 million people. There are 10 million immigrants. We could not melt those 10 million within 85 million. The 10 million is almost going to melt the 85 million.

Also, everyone here is very afraid of the laws. For example, if someone hits someone in a fight, even if they have a billion-dollar investment in the country, they deport them immediately. The laws are that deterrent. It's an interesting place. Somehow, there isn't even a single beggar on the streets. If you are a religious person, live your religion as you wish.

But if you are a person of the modern world, live all the features of modern life and the modern world to the fullest as much as you want. They don't say anything, you just have to obey the laws. The only issue is you have to obey the laws, that's it. As far as I can see, everyone obeys the laws."