DBP Co-chair Sebahat Tuncel had announced that there had been an attempt to burn 34 villagers in Lice, saying “Soldiers arrest 34 villagers. A unit comes along. They have beards and armbands with Arabic writing on them. This unit brings gas and attempts to burn the villagers. They say they will burn them. If the commissioned officer let them, they would have. The officer refuses. He says he has informed the regiment of the arrest of these people, thus he can do no such thing. And the unit, god knows who they answer to, says ‘These are all terrorists, we will burn them all, we don’t have to answer to anybody’ and threatens to burn the people. It is possible that 34 people would have been burned alive if the officer hadn’t intervened.” Tuncel said there was talk of an organisation called “Sadat”.

Çiğdem Toker from Cumhuriyet newspaper mentions the allegations in her column today, saying “The allegations, the questions are too serious for both the government and the TAF to remain silent.”

According to Toker’s column, the Sadak Inc. was founded by retired special war Brigadier General Adnan Tanrıverdi in 2012. The company describes itself as “the first and only company that offers training and consultancy in the field of international defense and counselling”.

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan, founding Rector of the Üsküdar University, is among the consultants in the company. Tarhan serves as a consultant in psychological warfare in the company. Prof. Mehmet Zelka, vice rector in the same university, is the company’s economy consultant.

Toker’s column reads: “What makes the company extraordinary is the area of activity they openly declare. By a phrase the arms industry won’t like, they sell killing lessons. If you were to ask, ‘OK, but what could this company be asking the professors who train university students, who we assume value life over death?’, I don’t have an answer.”

The website for Sadat Inc. showcases several “training bundles”. The bundles on offer are unconventional warfare course, subversion tactics training bundle, police special operations basic training bundle, border outpost security training bundle and artillery and mortar advanced surveillance course.

CHP MPs have given 4 parliamentary questions on the company in 2012, but National Defense Minister İsmet Sezgin left the questions of whether Sadat trained FSA militants in urban warfare, whether they had taken grants or loans from the state, whether foreign states had aided them, whether they had any permits from any official state institution regarding military training and consultancy, unanswered.