Sedat

Earthquake victims mourn relatives who lost their lives in the powerful earthquakes, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, 5 March 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/SEDAT SUNA

The reporters were in Turkey covering the deadly earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people and left millions without homes. All three are freelancers and received official journalistic accreditation from the Turkish state.

Protesters in front of the Swedish consulate in Istanbul on Sunday chanted against Sweden and burned Swedish flags and pictures of the far-right Swedish-Danish politician Rasmus Paludan.

Paludan sparked anger in Turkey by publicly burning the Koran in front of supporters of his far-right Danish political party, Hard Line. He also has Swedish citizenship.

Sedat Peker. Photo: Sedat Peker's Facebook page.

"If the judiciary cannot fight against crime, corruption and bribery everything will be finished. We are now waiting for an effective and comprehensive investigation [into Peker's claims]," Muharrem Erkek, the vice chair of the Republican People's Party, CHP, said on Monday after his party filed a criminal complaint.

Telman Ismailov (right) and Turkish businessman Sedat Peker (left) in Podgorica. Photo: Twitter/Sedat Peker

The Azerbaijan-born Russian billionaire was arrested in Podgorica, Montenegro, on October 1, on a Russian-issued international arrest warrant for allegedly ordering contract murders.

From alleged drug trafficking and a murder cover-up to weapons transfers to Islamic militants, a convicted crime ringleader has been dishing the dirt on members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party through a series of tell-all videos that have captivated the nation and turned him into an unlikely social media phenomenon.

Turkish parliament speaker Mustafa Şentop submitted a request in writing to the Interior Ministry on May 27 for the identity disclosure of a lawmaker allegedly receiving a sizable monthly paycheque from an organized crime leader, according to daily Milliyet.

Following a statement regarding the 1996 murder of Kutlu Adalı, a prominent Turkish Cypriot journalist, Atilla Peker has been released with a judicial control measure on the charge of "helping to premeditated murder" by an Istanbul court to which he was referred to.

The Istanbul Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into the murder of a Turkish Cypriot journalist in 1996 following the claims of Sedat Peker, a fugitive mafia boss who has recently been making online exposés about his network's criminal acts and relations with the politics.

Sedat Peker fell out of favour in Turkey several years ago, but he commands a significant social media following and his latest YouTube videos are shaking Turkish politics to the core.

Sliding in opinion polls amid a severe economic crisis and a surge in coronavirus infections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is looking unusually embattled these days. And now his administration has been hit by a roiling corruption scandal that some say has a fin de siècle aura about it.