Perhaps for the first time in the world, an organized crime leader or mafia boss has become a public hero. Sedat Peker, who spent years in prison for crimes committed during Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s early years in power, began working for the Erdogan government years after his release. When the possibility of Erdogan losing the elections in Türkiye arose, Sedat Peker threatened everyone, saying he would “drown in a bloodbath” the intellectuals who opposed the AKP and Erdogan government in a Türkiye that was increasingly sliding towards dictatorship.
After Erdogan won the elections, he targeted Sedat Peker. Having worked for the AKP and Erdogan for years, Peker began using the advantages of being close to the ruling party to his own benefit, making him a target of the government, and they once again launched an operation to arrest him. Previously close to the then-Minister of Interior, Suleyman Soylu, Sedat Peker was targeted and eventually fled Türkiye, first to Georgia and then to Dubai. Sedat Peker, who worked with and was used by those he and his associates for years, has now started making and publishing videos on YouTube against the AKP and Erdogan. He is still in Dubai and knows that he will go to prison if he returns to the country.
It is said that Peker never got involved in the drug trade, but he has been seizing the assets of wealthy businessmen, extorting money from them, taking over nightclubs, and managing his entire team with the illegal money he obtained from these activities. Journalists opposed to Erdogan are now describing him as a hero.
In Dubai, Peker came to public attention for buying houses for the relatives of soldiers and police officers who lost their lives in Türkiye. Everyone, from those who lost their homes and jobs to farmers who lost their cows and lovers, is making videos asking Peker for help. Even those who lost all their assets in gambling, including their family’s house and car, are making videos before committing suicide saying, “Sedat Peker, buy my mother a house, I have done them so much harm. I lost all my family’s assets in gambling.” Most recently, even the editor-in-chief of Sözcü newspaper and television, which is critical of Erdoğan and the AKP, said on screen that he was proud of him.
The strangest thing is this: In a recent poll, he became the person the public trusts the most. 67% of the people surveyed stated that they found Peker much more trustworthy. Neither politicians, nor artists and scientists, nor members of the military and judiciary are among the institutions and individuals the public trusts the most. The public has turned someone who spent years in prison for mafia leadership, whose guilt has been proven, into a hero, and now they worship him.
Is this the fault of the public, the Turkish state, or the ruling Erdoğan and AKP government?