Mafia boss' videos expose top Turkish officials

Turkey has been rocked by the exiled mafia boss Sedat Peker's YouTube videos, in which he described alleged incidents involving crime, corruption and state secrets.

Peker has posted five videos, each about an hour long. His popularity has skyrocketed at an increasing rate with each release. The fourth video surpassed 5 million views in five days. 

Peker has promised more videos as comments under his posts reveal a well-engaged audience asking detailed questions about several issues.

The common theme in Peker’s videos are claims that top Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials betrayed him. He alleges that Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu tipped him off that an investigation report was being prepared on him before he left the country.

The allegations involve possible murder, rape, drug smuggling and abuse of political power, just to name a few. These allegations involve former senior bureaucrats such as Mehmet Agar and his son Tolga Agar, who is an AKP lawmaker, as well as Soylu and his advisers.

Peker alleged that the younger Agar was involved in the rape and death of a young female journalist whose demise was originally reported as a suicide. Other allegations involve the lavish spending habits of Soylu’s advisers.

Opposition leaders publicly questioned whether prosecutors will be opening an investigation into these allegations. 

Yet, it is intriguing that Peker’s YouTube channel has not been banned in Turkey and that top AKP figures, including presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, have acknowledged the videos while condemning opposition figures for taking Peker seriously.