Demirören Holding

Demirören Holding is a government- related Turkish conglomerate based in Istanbul - Beyoğlu . He is present in the Turkish public primarily through the operation of the shopping center of the same name on İstiklal Street in the center of Istanbul and through the publication of the high-circulation daily newspapers Milliyet and Vatan . She has been the owner of Hürriyet and CNN Türk since 2018 .

overview

The largest corporate division, energy, recorded sales of 9.5 billion Turkish lira in 2015 (around three billion euros at the time). Key figures for the entire holding company are not available.

The group is led by Erdoğan Demirören ; The executive chairman of the board is his son Yıldırım Demirören , who was president of the Beşiktaş sports club from 2004 to 2012 and has been president of the Turkish Football Association ever since .

history

In 1956, Şükrü Demirören founded a company for the import of automotive parts in the Sirkeci district of Istanbul . This date is now considered the beginning of the company's history. The company's founder passed away the following year. His son Erdoğan Demirören, who is considered the actual founder of the group, took over his legacy.

In 1968 the piston factory Parsat Piston was founded, in 1972 with Milangaz the first private gas company in Turkey. From 1978 the group was also active in the real estate industry. Over the years, other business areas were added. In 2011 the various companies were brought together under the umbrella of Demiröen Holding. In the same year the Demirören AVM (Demirören Shopping Center) was opened in Istanbul and the Milliyet and Vatan newspapers were bought by the Doğan media group .

Corporate divisions

The holding is divided into the following corporate divisions:

Energy (including the companies Milangaz, Moil and, since 2016, Total Türkiye )
Industry (including the Demirören Ağır Metal Sanayi metal factory and the Parsat Piston piston factory)
Housing construction (Lidya construction company)
Tourism (including the Demirören İstiklal Palas in Istanbul and the Kemer Country holiday complex west of Istanbul)
Management of residential complexes
Port operations (the port facilities Zeyport in Istanbul- Zeytinburnu and Dolfen in Aliağa )
Operation of shopping malls (Demirören shopping center)
Education (Ata Koleji private high schools)
Media (including Milliyet and Vatan )

Telephone affair

In spring 2014, CEO Erdoğan Demirören hit the international media. In the wake of the 2013/14 corruption scandal , the recording of an illegally tapped telephone conversation between him and the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was made public. In it, the head of government complained about the publication of internal government documents, called the responsible editor-in-chief a "dishonorable, vile, lousy guy" and demanded his dismissal. At the end of the four-minute long recording, the 75-year-old CEO Demiröen burst into tears and sobbed: “How did I get into it?” This affair became particularly drastic evidence of the Turkish government's influence at home and abroad seen the media.

criticism

Circumcision of freedom of the press

The Demirören group is not only criticized because of the telephone affair. Since the takeover of Vatan and above all the traditional Milliyet , numerous well-known journalists such as Can Dündar , Hasan Cemal , Ece Temelkuran , Kadri Gürsel and many others have been dismissed for political reasons.

Destruction of urban culture

The construction of the shopping center on the site of an old Han , i.e. a commercial building from the late Ottoman era, was criticized as a ruthless interference with the architecture and the economic and social fabric of the district. The group was also accused of erecting a building that was much taller than the building permit required and of negligently damaging the neighboring historic Ağa Mosque during the construction work. An investigation report by the Turkish Ministry of Culture spoke of a "partly illegal construction". However, the subsequent criminal proceedings ended with an acquittal.