Konya model

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The Konya model was a popular financing instrument in Turkey in the early 1990s . By buying shares, private individuals become shareholders in holding companies, which in turn are active in various economic sectors. Investors and borrowers form a community of interests in which both the opportunities for profit and the risk of loss are shared.

Konya

The Kombassan Holding was one of the first and for many years the most successful holding of the "Konya model". It was considered Erbakan as evidence of the success of Islamic businessmen. The futuristic-looking headquarters of the group on the edge of Necmettin-Erbakan Park in Konya was the city's first glass high-rise. From Konya, Kombassan had spread internationally. Konya is considered an Islamic stronghold in Turkey. Emissaries are said to have started there in the early 1990s, going from door to door, to sell people shares. The economic development dynamics of the companies in the Anatolian province is often also called " Anatolian tigers " in reference to the "Asian tigers".

The "green capital"

Money invested according to the commandments of Islam forms the "green capital" with which Turkish companies finance themselves according to the "Konya model". This so-called “third financial market” of Turkey is also known in Germany as the gray capital market .

For three generations, guest workers and their descendants in Europe had worked hard and spent little money. The peasant migrants of the sixties had become a society of owners of small fortunes, who until then had invested their money in gold jewelry or hard currencies. Because the Koran prohibits interest income, devout Muslims are open to “Islamic” alternatives: instead of interest , the holdings lure with partnerships. When Turkish holdings began soliciting investors in the Turkish communities of Western Europe, they met with great interest.

Around 1993 "Islamic Holdings" developed a form of "Islamically correct" financing: The devout Muslim uses his money to acquire a share in the company, which operates according to strictly Islamic regulations, and with this share shares the profit and loss of the holding company. This form of fundraising is called the "Konya Model". It is now widespread wherever devout Muslim Turks live.

The "Islamic Holdings"

The original idea of ​​“Islamic Holdings” is said to go back to Necmettin Erbakan , a politician who studied in Germany and whose ideology of “just order” aimed at overcoming the Western model of society in economic terms. The “Islamic Holdings” advertised that they would use the money from the Turks abroad to gradually conquer the entire Turkish economy and to build a parallel Islamic economy among the Turks abroad.

Pious Turks in Europe supported the business ideas of Islamic entrepreneurs to expand product ranges according to the needs of strictly religious people, to set up branches in department stores in which the women's clothing offered is Islamic-moral, alcohol and pork are not offered and prayer rooms are available, as well as with investments in Turkey to create jobs.

The cooperative-like Yibitaş Holding founded in the early 1970s can be regarded as a forerunner .

Over fifty holdings are said to have worked according to the "Konya model". The three largest were Kombassan , Yimpaş, and Jet-Pa . Kombassan opened a German branch in the small Swabian town of Lauingen in 1999 and Yimpaş operated from its headquarters in Switzerland.

The holdings preferably acquired “green capital” from devout Muslims as a target group.

These holdings used preachers in the mosques as sales partners, who exploited the piety of their compatriots and emphasized that the Koran forbids interest and that Western-style investments are therefore haram (forbidden). At sales events of the holdings - often organized by Milli Görüş in their facilities - the pious community was then presented with the solution to this problem of faith: the Islamically correct investment of savings in one of these holdings. As a result, some imams and high-ranking members of the Milli Görüş mosque associations acted as debt collectors for the holdings. In this way, the mosque associations in Germany became a hub for a symbiosis of faith and business, religion and profit.

For a while, today's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is said to have promoted the Islamic holding company Jet-Pa.

The holdings and their economic activities

The " Yimpaş-Holding ", which is particularly active in Germany, opened a department store chain at the turn of the millennium.

The Turkish military was suspicious of the boom from the start. The personal connections between the Muslim managers and the increasingly powerful Islamist politicians like Necmettin Erbakan were too close for her. The General Staff called for a boycott of the Islam holdings. However, the call for a boycott was unsuccessful and the Islam Holdings were able to expand their field of action to Western Europe in the second half of the 1990s.

Legal background

Cooperative model

The "Islam Holdings" advertised for savings in Germany according to the cooperative model . In Turkey, this form of organization is called “societies with many partners” (Turkish: çok ortaklı şirket). This business model allows outside shareholders to participate in the profits of the company and offers the company borrowing while bypassing the interest-based banking system.

The shares sold according to the "Konya model" are not traded on the stock exchange. The exact number of holders of unit certificates and the amount of their contributions are only known to the respective holding company . They are neither visible nor registered in Germany or Turkey.

criticism

This so-called third financial market of Turkey is heavily criticized not only by the state committee of the capital market (SPK), but also by the private Islamic banks (ÖFK). The main point of criticism is the lack of rights of the investors, especially the Turks abroad. A Turkish investor in Germany cannot invoke the Islamic economic order.

Fraud notices

The insolvency administrator of “Yimpaş Group AG Switzerland” stated “that the department stores had been uneconomical from the start. At the same time, a total of 293 million euros of investor money is said to have flowed into Turkey via the Yimpaş management company. ”This indicates that the business only served to attract investors. There is strong evidence that the “Konya model” is an investment system with a snowball character .

Connections between Turkish politicians, IGMG officials and holding managers

The Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution has knowledge of connections between the Milli Görüş functionaries in Germany and the Turkish Islam Holdings.

The current governing party AKP , Millî Görüş and the Holdings are said to have been closely intertwined for years. The “Center for Turkish Studies” gives examples of board members of Yimpaş Holding holding leading positions in the provincial organizations of the now banned Welfare Party (Refah Partisi, RP) in Yozgat . Takyettin Yarıyan, board member of Jet-Pa Holding, was a MP for the Right Path Party (Doğru Yol Partisi, DYP) in Siirt Province .

The ZDF magazine “Frontal 21” reported in November 2006 that the imam of the Mevlana mosque in Berlin had openly advertised in his sermons to acquire shares in the profits of a dubious Islamic holding company, made money transactions himself and made high interest profits. According to “Frontal 21” research, the imam, who is registered as unemployed, is said to have had almost half a million euros in the account of a Turkish bank.

In Ludwigshafen, the insolvency administrator Karl-Heinrich Lorenz found out that the local Hodscha was the manager of the Yimpaş department store .

While some of the people in charge, such as Jet-Pa owner Fadil Akgündüz or Yimpaş boss Dursun Ugyar , were standing in front of Turkish courts, other Yimpaş managers became AKP politicians. Former Yimpaş board member Ilias Aslan is an AKP member for Yozgat (Yimpaş headquarters).

Parallel to the disappearance of the fortunes of pious Turks abroad, a new wealthy “bourgeoisie” emerged in Anatolia, home of many holdings. This new money nobility is supposed to form the financial and political basis of today's ruling AKP party.

Economic damage

Between 200,000 and 300,000 German Turks are said to have lost their savings. Yimpaş Holding alone is said to have had 120,000 shareholders in Germany, and Kombassan Holding, as the second largest company, has around 35,000 shareholders. The Foundation for Turkish Studies and Integration Research estimates the damage caused at five billion euros. Other sources also consider total damage of up to 50 billion euros to be possible.

The victims

The “Solidarity Association of the Turks in Europe” (ATDD), as an association for injured parties, looked after many victims of the “Konya model”, carried out educational work and created publicity. For 2006 he had sought a class action lawsuit against the Turkish government.

The “Solidarity Association of Turks in Europe” demanded from Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble that the German Islam Conference be suspended until the involvement of the Islamic associations represented at the conference in the “Yimpaş scandal” in Germany has been clarified.

“The Turks in Germany are not the milking cows of the Islamic associations. If today those in whose mosques several hundred thousand Muslims have been betrayed and their savings have been deprived of their savings now act as representatives of the Muslims, then this is unbearable and the sheer mockery. The federal government should know: These people do not have a majority among Muslims in Germany! "

- Muhammet Demirci : Chairman of the ATDD

The solidarity association tried in vain for support from the German government in the dispute with the uncooperative Turkish authorities. Apart from a press release by the CDU MP Kristina Schröder and a “small question” from the Left Party on the “situation of investors in so-called Islamic holdings”, German politicians showed no interest. "According to its own statement, the federal government did not have any knowledge that these holdings are connected to the activities of Islamic organizations such as Milli Görüş."

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Turkey Yearbook of the Center for Turkish Studies 2000/2001 , page 55
  2. ↑ Debt capital: Investments strictly according to the Koran , Die Zeit 16/2003
  3. ↑ "The Jet-Pa representative Sedat Sezgin in Frankfurt was withdrawn on January 19, 1999 because of misuse of client funds and false testimony.", From: The million mesh. The Jet-Pa-Holding lures unsuspecting investors with fantastic offers and returns. , Focus on March 8, 1999
  4. ↑ a b "Allah is always there" , taz on September 2, 2000
  5. ↑ Fraud billions in the name of Allah. Islamic holdings have systematically defrauded Turks in Germany - affair weighs on Erdogan's ruling party, the AKP.
  6. ↑ Turkey Yearbook of the Center for Turkish Studies 2000/2001 , page 71
  7. ↑ Turkey Yearbook of the Center for Turkish Studies 2000/2001 , page 59
  8. ↑ Pascal Beucker : Rip off in the name of Allah , TAZ on May 24, 2004
  9. ↑ " An international arrest warrant issued in Germany against the Yimpaş managing director Dursun Uyar has been available since 2005." Scandal involving Islamic holdings. Financial fraud in the name of God. , Qantara.de on November 29, 2006
    Suspected investment fraud in the billions ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive )     Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Schweizer Fernsehen SF, 10vor10 archive broadcast from September 11, 2003 Relevant convictions: Order against Yimpas, Cologne Higher Regional Court ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from April 5, 2005, Ref .: 15 U 153/04 ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.srf.ch
     @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.anwalt-a.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.olg-koeln.nrw.de
  10. ↑ Bankruptcy in the Shadow of Allah - The Turkish company Ymta has filed for bankruptcy , Die Zeit on April 10, 2003
  11. ↑ Ankara has no interest in the investigation. Close ties between AKP and Islam-Holdings , Die Welt on June 22, 2006
  12. ↑ Turkey Yearbook of the Center for Turkish Studies 2000/2001 , page 66
  13. ↑ a b Questionable business at the Berlin Mevlana Mosque / Preacher also suspected of fraud , ZDF on November 7, 2006
  14. ↑ Questionable Business , Der Tagesspiegel, November 7, 2006
  15. ↑ Rip off in the name of Allah , TAZ on May 24, 2004
  16. ↑ a b Fraud billions in the name of Allah. Islamic holdings have systematically defrauded Turks in Germany - affair weighs on Erdogan's ruling party, the AKP.
  17. ↑ Holy Holdings. Or: The Lost Treasure of the German Turks , Deutschlandradio on January 11, 2005
  18. ↑ Yimpas & Co. raid in Frankfurt  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , April 30, 2007@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / minaretta.twoday.net  
  19. ↑ Muslims say no to the Islam Conference ( Memento of the original from May 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , May 9, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / minaretta.twoday.net
  20. ↑ Islam Holdings: Fraud against Germany's Turks , Spiegel on April 17, 2007
  21. ↑ Answer of the Federal Government to the Minor Question by MPs Sevim Dagdelen, Hüseyin-Kenan Aydin and the DIE LINKE parliamentary group. - Printed matter 16/4646 (PDF; 69 kB)
  22. ↑ Noted in the Bundestag: Islamic Holdings
  23. ↑ Nothing seen, nothing heard  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , March 31, 2007@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.evrensel.de