Four members of the board of Boydak Holding, one of the largest conglomerates in Turkey, have been detained as part of a government-led operation on charges of supporting the so-called “parallel state,” Today’s Zaman reported on Friday.
Boydak chair Hacı Boydak, CEO of the holding Memduh Boydak and two other board members, Erol Boydak and Murat Bozdağ, were detained by Kayseri Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau officers who raided their houses on Friday morning.
Mahmut Tanal, a deputy from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), called the operation against Boydak “politically motivated,” and argued that the move constitutes a threat to legal security and especially to property rights.
“Will investors come [to Turkey] for business after seeing or hearing the operation conducted against Boydak?… A threat like this to investors is identical to aiding and abetting terrorism, because unemployment is the source of all evils and disasters,” Tanal wrote on Twitter on Friday.
Boydak Holding is active in a number of sectors, including energy, furniture and banking with 38 subsidiary companies. According to its website, it has an annual turnover of more than TL 6 billion ($2 billion) and employs over 13,000 people.
Memduh Boydak is also a board member of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD). He had also been detained along with six executives from the holding as part of a government-backed operation in September of last year.