Nuri Bozkir is a man who many believe poses a threat to the Turkish president. The abducted arms dealer is viewed as one of the few people who could unveil systematic wrongdoing by the Turkish government because he was an integral part of its covert weapons shipments to war zones.

The Turkish national intelligence agency, MIT, captured the arms dealer-turned-whistleblower in Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told pro-government media last week.

“Our intelligence found that this person was hiding in Ukraine and we talked to [Ukrainian President] Zelenskyy about him being caught,” Erdogan said. “Our intelligence service and great cooperation with its partners made this arrest possible.”

In interviews with Ukrainian news site Strana at the end of 2020, Bozkir had disclosed delicate aspects of Turkey’s clandestine arms transfers to militant groups operating in Syria and Libya, noting that MIT operatives would take a cut from the deals.

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Bozkir, a former special forces captain in the Turkish armed forces, said he would legally buy weapons in eastern European countries and have them shipped to Turkey, where Turkish intelligence would divert them to battlefields across the region.

Out of 50 shipments transferred to militant groups in Syria, his last one before fleeing to Ukraine in 2015 was allegedly conducted without the organizational involvement of MIT. The shipment was intercepted by Turkish police, triggering a hasty operation by his MIT handlers to get him out of the country.

Read more: DW