Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has signed a decree transferring to the Turkey Wealth Fund (TVF) the treasury’s shares in 12 companies seized due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement.
A presidential decree published in the Official Gazette on Tuesday announced the transfer of shares in major companies such as Koza Altın, Koza Anadolu Metal and İpek Doğal Enerji, all of which are publicly listed on the Borsa Istanbul stock exchange.
Ankara accuses the Gülen movement, a faith-based group invested in education and relief work throughout the world and inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, of masterminding a failed coup in July 2016. The movement strongly denies any involvement.
Following the failed coup, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government launched a massive purge targeting real and alleged members of the movement under the pretext of an anti-coup fight, removing over 130,000 people from civil service jobs.
The AKP had designated the group as a terrorist organization before the coup and seized schools, universities, media outlets, companies and their buildings and the assets of individuals, corporations and organizations that were believed to have had ties to the movement.
More than 1,100 companies have been transferred to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), most of them following the failed coup. Journalists from confiscated newspapers and TV stations have been arrested, replaced and jailed.
The transfer to the TVF marks a significant shift in the management of these assets, which have been under state control for nearly eight years. The TVF, which manages more than $300 billion in assets according to its 2022 report, is overseen by Erdoğan himself, who serves as its chairman. The fund was established in 2016 in the wake of the coup attempt, with the stated aim of consolidating state assets and making strategic investments.
The stock prices of the companies involved surged on the news. Shares of Koza Altın rose 8.9 percent, while Koza Anadolu Metal climbed 8.1 percent at the Borsa Istanbul opening. İpek Doğal Enerji shares jumped 9.94 percent to 54.2 lira.
The transfer of these companies to the TVF has sparked criticism. Observers argue that the wealth fund lacks transparency and has been used to centralize economic power in the hands of Erdoğan’s administration. Critics point to the fund’s restricted audits and the opacity surrounding its operations as major concerns.
The companies transferred to the TVF are part of Koza-İpek Holding, a conglomerate that was among the first to be targeted in the government’s crackdown on the Gülen movement. The holding’s assets, which span industries from mining to energy, were initially seized in 2015 and later handed over to the TMSF following a court ruling in 2016.
This latest move is seen by some as a continuation of the government’s efforts to further entrench control over key economic sectors, particularly those with strategic value, like mining and energy.
President Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members.
A report last year titled “Persecutory Confiscation Amounting to Crimes Against Humanity: Case of the Gülen Group,” exposed the vast scale of property confiscations in Turkey targeting the movement, with an estimated value of $50 billion and affecting over 1.5 million individuals in what the authors call systematic and widespread violations of domestic and international law that amount to “crimes against humanity.”