“My dear brothers, my dear friends,” the Turkish mafioso, grinning ear to ear, says to open his latest YouTube video, which drew five million views in less than 24 hours. “Here we are again.”
Forget beloved dizis, or soap operas, such as Magnificent Century. Say hello to Sedat Peker, Turkey's new viral video sensation. Two parts Tony Soprano, the fictional American mobster, and one part The View, the American talk show, this shady figure has emerged as a media phenomenon in recent weeks by simply sitting at a table and talking to the camera.
His videos, which have nearly doubled in length since the first 40-minute release two weeks ago, cast a subtle spell. To start with, Peker is perfect for the part. The innocent schoolboy haircut, the open-collared shirt and rotating silver necklace attachments, including Zulfikar, the sword of Ali, which may be a reference to Ottoman Janissaries.
The massive rings on his thick, stubby fingers. The deep-set eyes, suggesting a history of violence, too many late nights, or both. The contradiction of an Islamist ultra-nationalist convicted criminal who presents himself as a neo-Robin Hood.
Peker is exiled from Turkey, his whereabouts unknown, and his comfortably bland, windowless setting maintains the mystery. The bamboo poles behind him evoke his 2007-2014 imprisonment, for forgery, robbery and leading a criminal organisation. On the clear glass table lay a stack of notes and a series of neatly arranged envelopes – an apparent threat to any who might cross his path.
But the real attraction appears to be how he spills the beans on ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) insiders and their alleged links to a shadowy underworld. As the outlook for the AKP and its parliamentary partner, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has sagged in the past two years, along with Turkey’s economic state, mafia figures have returned to political prominence as an underground economy has breathed new life.
Last year, convicted murderer Alaattin Cakici was released from prison as part of a Covid-19-related amnesty and was soon denouncing government critics and receiving public support from MHP leader Devlet Bahceli. In his six videos so far (the seventh appeared on Sunday, as this column went to press), Peker has lifted the curtain on a series of alleged clandestine plots involving rape, murder, drug smuggling and more.
Former finance minister Berat Albayrak is rumoured to be leading the so-called Pelican group, a secretive wing of the AKP that Sedat Peker has targeted. AP Photo
His main targets are former interior minister Mehmet Agar, current Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, and the so-called Pelican group, a secretive wing of the AKP rumoured to be led by Berat Albayrak, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law and former treasury and finance minister.
Peker had served as the AKP’s hatchetman, verbally attacking the party’s critics and rivals, until he was reportedly pushed out. In 2016, as hundreds of academics took a stand against Turkey’s military assault on Kurdish militants in the south-east, Peker vowed to “bathe in their blood”. A year ago, Peker defended Mr Soylu after the latter threatened to resign for Covid-19 failures. Now he shares photos of Mr Soylu at a mafia figure’s wedding and vows to attack the interior minister every week.
Peker saves his harshest venom for Mr Agar and his son Tolga, a member of parliament for Elazig, like his father before him. He says the two seized a Bodrum marina last year to profit from illicit trade and accuses them of killing a 21-year-old Kazakh journalist who had interviewed Tolga and then covering it up to look like a suicide. Peker describes Mr Agar as the head of Turkey’s deep state.
Sedat Peker has yet to criticise Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his YouTube series. Reuters
This is surely a reference to a 1996 car accident that exposed the Turkish government’s embrace of ultra-nationalist crime figures as a paramilitary unit. Outside the village of Susurluk, Huseyin Kocadag, the Istanbul deputy police chief, Abdullah Catli, a known Grey Wolf and mafia hitman who was carrying six sets of identity documents, and Catli’s mistress, the beauty queen Gonca Us, were found dead alongside the car’s injured owner, Sedat Bucak, an MP for the True Path Party (DYP). The interior minister at the time was the DYP’s Mehmet Agar, who resigned five days later.
Opposition politicians assert that Peker’s revelations are even bigger than Susurluk. That remains to be seen, but what is clear is that his timing could hardly be better. Turkey was under its harshest lockdown yet when they began to trickle out, with people stuck at home and craving novel entertainment. “Brothers and sisters,” Peker likes to say, conspiratorially, “nothing is what it looks like.”
His videos distract from the lingering Covid-19 threat, increasing poverty and a problematic judicial system, as exemplified by last week’s extension of philanthropist Osman Kavala’s three-year detention. They also offer a people facing significant curbs on free expression – witness the 130,000 probes into insults against the president – the vicarious thrill of a former insider publicly taking down top officials.
This possibly explains why the mafioso has yet to criticise Mr Erdogan – likely because his 15 minutes of fame will last only as long as Turkey’s president allows it. Consider that while Mr Soylu describes Peker as “mafia scum”, Mr Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, says he is a “mafia person”. According to a recent report from Freedom House, the Turkish state is able to track down and capture suspected terrorists from Kosovo to Kenya. So one imagines it might be able to get a bead on a well-known crime boss posting viral videos every few days.
In one poll after another, Mr Erdogan and the AKP have hit new lows. In the latest, Mr Erdogan was easily bested by not one but three rivals in proposed head-to-head contests for the presidential election set for June 2023. Mr Erdogan may view Peker as helping place the blame for the AKP’s political failures and Turkey’s economic troubles on Mr Albayrak, Mr Soylu and other AKP parliamentarians, who could then take the fall.
Last week, Mr Soylu asked prosecutors to investigate Peker’s allegations, a move that some observers saw as a prelude to the interior minister’s resignation. The extent to which Peker’s claims are true is impossible to know, but he has offered impressive detail and presented recordings of a pro-government journalist and others to support his allegations.
He has also confessed to his involvement in criminal activities, such as an assault on a former MP and an attack on an opposition newspaper. In addition, Turkey’s T24 news site reports that the underground economy in Istanbul has increased from $3 billion in 2015 to $10bn in 2020, which suggests a growing mafia presence in the country.
Rumour has it that Peker will release 12 videos in all, and the Turkish public is sure to gobble them up. Already on social media they have been studying each like a 21st-century Rosetta Stone, or an episode of Lost. "I've started a new #SedatPeker series," Turkish Twitter user Papatyamm said on Sunday. "Please don't give me any spoilers."
A web page on GoodReads, the leading book review and publishing information site, lists the books Peker has placed on his table for each video. The two Mario Puzo novels and a Godfather sequel are no surprise. But a non-fiction work by the late American journalist Mike Marqusee stands out.
Titled Wicked Messenger in English, the book is about the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's artistic evolution in response to the disturbances of the 1960s. "He can no longer tell the story straight," writes Marqusee, "because any story told straight is a false one."
David Lepeska is a Turkish and Eastern Mediterranean affairs columnist for The National
Manchester United 2 (Heaton (og) 42', Lindelof 64')
Aston Villa 2 (Grealish 11', Mings 66')
How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.
Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Level 1 has a valet service if you choose not to park in the basement level. This level houses all the kitchenware, including covetable brand French Bull, along with a wide array of outdoor furnishings, lamps and lighting solutions, textiles like curtains, towels, cushions and bedding, and plenty of other home accessories.
Level 2 features curated inspiration zones and solutions for bedrooms, living rooms and dining spaces. This is also where you’d go to customise your sofas and beds, and pick and choose from more than a dozen mattress options.
Level 3 features The Home’s “man cave” set-up and a display of industrial and rustic furnishings. This level also has a mother’s room, a play area for children with staff to watch over the kids, furniture for nurseries and children’s rooms, and the store’s design studio.
Mobile phone packages comparison
Sole survivors
Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
Tips for used car buyers
Choose cars with GCC specifications
Get a service history for cars less than five years old
Don’t go cheap on the inspection
Check for oil leaks
Do a Google search on the standard problems for your car model
Do your due diligence. Get a transfer of ownership done at an official RTA centre
Check the vehicle’s condition. You don’t want to buy a car that’s a good deal but ends up costing you Dh10,000 in repairs every month
Validate warranty and service contracts with the relevant agency and and make sure they are valid when ownership is transferred
If you are planning to sell the car soon, buy one with a good resale value. The two most popular cars in the UAE are black or white in colour and other colours are harder to sell
Tarek Kabrit, chief executive of Seez, and Imad Hammad, chief executive and co-founder of CarSwitch.com
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Tips to keep your car cool
Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
Park in shaded or covered areas
Add tint to windows
Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
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Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017 Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand Sector: FinTech, wealth management Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021 Current staff: more than 160 employees Stage: series D Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
