Turkey arrests journalist over ‘sleaze’ charges against government

A veteran journalist in Turkey who shared incriminating allegations against the government was detained today in the Western province of Canakkale on charges of disseminating false information, his lawyer confirmed.

Serdar Akinan, 55, tweeted that he was under arrest as police hauled off from his home in a dawn raid in Ayvacik district and ferried to Istanbul, where he was due to appear in court after being interrogated by police.

Akinan’s alleged crime was to share and comment on videos posted by Muhammed Yakut, a Kurdish organized crime figure, in which he accused numerous members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their business cronies of corruption and engaging in extramarital sex with women procured by a madam known as “Fatos” who also runs a dog shelter in Istanbul.

In a series of thickly Kurdish-accented monologues peppered with expletives broadcast on his YouTube channel, Yakut alleged that several cabinet ministers including Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu owned apartments worth more than $2 million in a modern complex called Camellia House in southwest London. 

Turhan Comez, a former AKP lawmaker who now serves as an adviser to Meral Aksener, leader of the nationalist opposition Iyi Party, claimed in turn that he had verified the claims through his lawyers in London but declined to provide details.

“The sewer has burst open. There is a flow of information. I found the title deeds. The claims are true,” Comez, a medical doctor who used to be Erdogan’s personal physician, told a local news outlet. Comez owns a private hospital in the UK capital.

He declined to share information establishing ownership of the properties that can be accessed for a small sum from various websites in the United Kingdom. Al-Monitor is awaiting such information from LandRegistryUK.

Coming just weeks ahead of polls to elect a new parliament and president on May 14, the accusations could further dent the AKP’s prospects as its ratings slip amid the worst economic downturn in three decades and the government’s shoddy management of the massive earthquakes that leveled large swaths of southern and eastern Turkey on Feb. 6.

“If a thousandth of what is being said is true, these people won’t be able to show their faces in public,” said Aksener of the implicated AKP officials at a ground-breaking ceremony in Ankara Monday. 

Investigative journalist Bahadir Ozgur told Al-Monitor that the claims pertaining to their foreign assets were not surprising. “I cannot comment on the allegations about this or that official’s relations with other women, but the AKP’s record speaks for itself,” Ozgur said.

The AKP has been dogged by allegations of graft since 2013, when the findings of a massive probe that unveiled links between Erdogan’s inner circle, Turkish state lender Halkbank and Iran’s sanctions-busting oil-for-gold trade that trafficks in the billions of dollars. Halkbank is in the dock in a New York federal court over its central role in the scheme.

In a minor reprieve for Ankara on Wednesday, the US Supreme Court threw out a lower court’s ruling that had allowed the prosecution of the state lender to proceed. It ordered the Manhattan-based Second US District Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider Halkbank’s efforts to have the case dismissed on the grounds that it is immune to prosecution because it is owned by the state, Reuters reported.

Evidence collected in the 2013 investigation included alleged audio recordings of Erdogan instructing his younger son Bilal to hide large sums of money. Numerous investigators in the police and the judiciary were subsequently fired and many jailed on charges of acting under orders from Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Sunni preacher who is accused of orchestrating the failed 2016 coup to overthrow Erdogan.

Data dumps curated by international investigative journalists’ collectives have documented the wealth amassed by Erdogan’s family and his inner circle as well. However, none of the scandals put much of a dent in Erdogan and his party’s popularity. But with the economy tanking and middle class AKP supporters feeling the pinch, the malfeasance charges may finally resonate.

Akinan’s detention has provoked an outcry, with fellow journalists and opposition politicians demanding his immediate release. “The detention of journalist Serdar Akinan in the early morning hours is a move aimed at suppressing his journalistic work and has no place in a democratic state with the rule of law,” tweeted Ozgur Ozel, a lawmaker for the main opposition Republican People’s Party.

Baris Terkoglu, an investigative journalist and columnist for the opposition daily Cumhuriyet, is among hundreds of media workers prosecuted and jailed for falling afoul of Erdogan. “What is astonishing of course is that the journalist who conveys the claims is being arrested, while those accused of committing actual crimes are roaming free,” Terkoglu told Al-Monitor.

Terkoglu added that he was assessing Yakut’s allegations. “This includes the possibility that he is being manipulated by outside actors,” Terkoglu noted.

Yakut’s rap sheet includes blackmail, embezzlement and armed assault. His whereabouts remain unknown. Online news outlet Oda Tv reported that Yakut had escaped Turkey via Bulgaria around 40 days ago.

Many see parallels with top organized crime boss Sedat Peker, who is thought to be living in the United Arab Emirates after fleeing justice in Turkey. He bombarded the government with sleaze charges in a slew of videos that went viral on social media in 2021 until his Emirati hosts shut him down. The restrictions on his use of social media came as long-running tensions between Turkey and the UAE began to ease.

Peker and Yakut have known each other for many years.

Yakut vowed on Wednesday to publish another explosive video later in the day. “This video will [unveil] the biggest corruption and black money,” he vowed.