After a power shift within the criminal network surrounding the AKP/MHP regime in Turkey, mafia boss Sedat Peker was booted out. He fled abroad and is now taking revenge on Erdoğan's government with a series of exposé videos in which he reveals the circle's links to organized crime. In his latest video, the underworld boss dealt with the role of networks in Germany loyal to Erdoğan and said he had been asked by AKP politician Metin Külünk to send money to Turkish associations. Regularly this also happened "under the hand". To which organizations in this country the money flowed, Peker not mention explicitly. The naming of Külünk, however, suggests that the "Ottomans Germania" (“Ottomans of Germany”) were financially supported.

One of the AKP/MHP regime's most brutal foreign organizations

The Turkish nationalist "Osmanen Germania" was founded in Hesse in 2014 and was at times considered the fastest growing rocker gang in Germany. The organization was involved in attempted murder, extortion, drug trafficking, forced prostitution as well as procuring and deprivation of liberty and was banned by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer in 2018. All sub-organizations were also affected by the ban. At the time, the group was already active in Germany with 16 local groups, known as "chapters". In many cities, it continues its activities largely undisturbed under other names.

Fascism and organized crime with the best connections in Palace

The "Osmanen Germania" and its successor organizations are certainly among the most dangerous networks of the AKP/MHP regime. The traces of the club, notorious as a "thug squad" of the Turkish state in Germany, reach as far as the Turkish presidential palace. According to Peker's confessions, Serdar Ekşioğlu, the husband of one of Erdoğan's nieces, brought the money to the so-called Ottomans. Earlier, Peker had released a video of a conversation between him and Ekşioğlu. In the video phone call, Peker accuses Ekşioğlu of behaving insincerely, saying they were both involved in the mistreatment of a former AKP deputy at a police station, supplying weapons to jihadists in Syria and other crimes. In the interview, Ekşioğlu admits his involvement in these acts.

Osmanen Germania bought by the AKP

Ekşioğlu's support of "Osmanen Germania" was also the subject of an October 16, 2015 report in the AKP-affiliated newspaper Sabah, which said Ekşioğlu's assistance had a particular impact on the Ottomans' decision to support the AKP in the November 1 elections that year.

Money for attacks on Kurds

Recordings of conversations from 2017 show that Erdoğan confidant and former AKP deputy Metin Külünk provided the "Osmanen Germania" with money to buy weapons on several occasions. From this money, the organization bought pistols and rapid-fire weapons to use against Kurds. Due to these activities, the Osmanen leaders Mehmet Bagci and Selcuk Sahin were imprisoned in 2018.

German judiciary hides links to Erdoğan regime

Although the connections to the Erdoğan regime were disclosed in the trial in Stuttgart, the defendants only received prison sentences for other offenses. In the trial, neither the court nor the prosecution brought up the fact that the alleged Ottomans had prepared assassinations of opposition figures. Levent Uzundal, the leader of the Stuttgart branch, received the highest sentence, six years in prison. Mehmet Bagci, the "world leader of the Osmanen Germania," received only three years and four months. There are pictures of him being received by Erdoğan himself in his palace. In an article in the April 2016 issue of the Post, an AKP publication based in Cologne, Bagci and Sahin stated in detail that they were ready to serve the Turkish state. In many cities in Germany, particularly Cologne and Stuttgart, they had already organized attacks on Kurdish people, he said.

Money from "patriotic" businessmen

In addition, Ottoman leaders praised themselves for participating in AKP rallies in Germany at the time and called for more help from the Turkish state. "We are ready to die for the fatherland. We have put our families and our children behind. Therefore, we expect our state and businessmen loyal to the fatherland to help us provide appropriate funds for our young people who are being trained in our sports clubs."

Orders from the Palace

It is clear from intercepted telephone conversations that Metin Külünk received his instructions to the Ottomans Germania directly from Erdoğan. For example, on June 1, 2016, the Turkish president is said to have instructed his companion to organize demonstrations against recognition of the genocide of the Armenians. This was followed by marches by the Ottomans the following day near the Bundestag (German Parliament).

In another telephone conversation, Külünk gave the then chairman of the Mannheim-based AKP lobby organization UETD, Yilmaz Ilkay Arin, the order to carry out a punitive action against the satirist Jan Böhmermann. His well-known Erdoğan satire had made high waves at the time. As a result, Arin called Ottoman chief Bagci on April 1, 2016, and gave him instructions to take action against Böhmermann. Arin spoke of Külünk wanting the "Turks" in Germany to arm themselves and stated that he had a depot of "clean weapons" and ammunition. After police raids, Külünk did not return to Germany and Arin also fled to Turkey. There, he was appointed to the board of the Boxing Federation by the AKP/MHP regime.

Vast sums flowed from Peker to Ottomans

According to reports in the Turkish media, Sedat Peker paid Külünk around $10,000 a month to support the Ottomans. Peker himself spoke of having discounted the AKP politician with much higher sums.

Jelpke calls for investigation in Germany

Ulla Jelpke, the domestic policy spokeswoman of the parliamentary group DIE LINKE, calls for investigations in Germany following Peker's statements. Also, she said, it must be investigated which organizations are now acting as substitute associations of the Ottomans. "In the last episode of his 'confessions', the mafia godfather Sedat Peker also talked about how he illegally supplied Turkish nationalist associations in Germany with large sums of money on behalf of politicians of the Turkish ruling party AKP. The AKP used such associations to drive extreme polarization within Turkey during election campaigns, including among the Turkish diaspora in Germany, in order to gain support for President Erdogan and his regime. I expect the German government and German security authorities to take the statements of Peker about the 'deep state' of politics, gangsters and secret service in Turkey and its connections to Germany as an opportunity to take a closer look at which groups, apart from the now banned Osmanen Germania, were financed and possibly armed through such mafia channels. The Turkish 'deep state' must be dried up completely - also in Germany! The German government's cozying up to Grey Wolves and the Islamic association DITIB must also come to an end - all of these forces, operating on a long leash from Ankara, are a danger to opposition members of Turkish origin in exile in Germany, to Kurds and Alevis, and to the peaceful coexistence of people in this country."