Saral, who criticised Azerbaijan, linked to a mafia group – PROFILE

As previously reported, Oktay Saral, chief adviser to the President of Türkiye, criticised a decision by Azerbaijan’s Cabinet of Ministers concerning dress standards for students and teachers in general education schools, describing it as “unacceptable”.

TodayPress TV reports that Oktay Saral was born in 1967 in the Of district of Trabzon Province. He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at Eskişehir Osmangazi University.

He served as mayor of Of from 1999 to 2001 and was elected to the 24th term of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye as a member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the 2011–2015 period. Although he ran in the 2015 elections, he failed to secure enough votes.

The Saraloğlu clan, to which he belongs, is regarded as having considerable influence in Of. Since 1874, for more than 150 years, mayors of the town have largely come from this clan. The fact that all three candidates nominated by the town’s three main political parties in the 2009 mayoral election bore the surname Saral is remembered as an absurd episode in Turkish political history.

In addition to its political and business influence, the family is reported to have a significant presence in the criminal underworld through a mafia organisation known as the Sarallar group. According to information attributed to Türkiye’s General Directorate of Security, the group is one of the country’s three most powerful mafia organisations. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has reportedly stated that the group has an armed unit of 250 people and between 35,000 and 40,000 supporters.

Members of the Sarallar family belong to an influential network known as the “Black Sea group” surrounding Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The article alleges that family representatives secure government contracts, particularly for construction and infrastructure projects in Istanbul. Oktay Saral’s cousin is the president of İstanbulspor football club.

A civil engineer by profession, Saral has served as an adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since 2016. Erdoğan has 36 advisers, making Saral one of them. Although his area of responsibility concerns municipal affairs and local government, he occasionally comments on domestic and foreign policy as well.

Saral has repeatedly made headlines with statements about Israel. In June 2026, he said Israel was wary of Türkiye and accused Zionist circles of targeting the country.

Earlier, on September 9, 2015, Saral threatened to “wipe Israel off the face of the earth”, in remarks similar to statements made by Iranian counterparts.