ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday dismissed mob boss Sedat Peker’s allegations of corruption and other crimes against his top officials and allies, and he defended the interior minister and vowed to seek justice.
A series of bombshell videos by convicted gang leader Peker has attracted tens of millions of views videos. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has denied Peker’s accusations, but the videos have prompted harsh criticism from opposition parties, threatening Erdogan’s government.
Speaking to his party’s lawmakers, in his first public address of the issue, Erdogan said the goal of the videos was to harm Turkey.
The government would chase organised crime criminals all over the world, bring them home and hand them to the law in order to thwart these “games,” he said.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
