In recent weeks, Sedat Peker, a well-known convicted mafia leader, has been releasing videos on YouTube about relations between the state and the mafia in Turkey. Peker has made serious accusations — including murder, rape, forced disappearances, drug dealing and the seizure of property — against current and former government officials. The videos released by Sedat Peker expose state-mafia relations in Turkey and have sparked a major debate within the country.
In his latest video, Peker talked about the murder of Kurdish businessmen and the journalist Ugur Mumcu during the 1990s. Peker openly accuses the former police chief and minister Mehmet Ağar and the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) member Korkut Eken of the murders.
Savas Buldan, the husband of HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan, is among the Kurdish businessman who was murdered in the 1990s. Savas Buldan was abducted by the Turkish security forces from the Çınar Hotel in Yeşilyurt, İstanbul, on 3 June 1994 and found dead on 4 June 1994 on a road in the Yukarıkaraş village of the Yığılca district of Bolu.
After Peker’s video, HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan spoke about the murder of her husband, sharing a message from her social media account: “We have said it for years and now we are saying it again. Savaş Buldan and his friends were killed by those who ruled the state. Those who committed the murder were not tried and acquitted easily. Now we go back to the beginning and take action to stand trial.”
