Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a missile attack targeting a vessel owned by an associate of former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, citing the company’s ongoing trade with Israel as grounds for the strike.
#معركة_الفتح_الموعود_والجهاد_المقدس pic.twitter.com/e4yzTxj9A8
— العميد يحيى سريع (@army21ye) November 19, 2024
On Monday, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels targeted the Panama-flagged Anadolu S, managed by İstanbul-based Oras Shipping, with two missile strikes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The attacks, which missed their target, were reportedly motivated by allegations of trade with Israel by the vessel’s owners, even amid public anti-Israel rhetoric from Turkey’s government.
The attacks are part of a Houthi campaign targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea, initiated after the group declared a blockade on companies engaging with Israel in May 2024. International maritime authorities have since heightened security measures in response to these incidents.
According to Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree, the Anadolu S violated their declared ban on companies trading with Israeli ports.
The Anadolu S, traveling near Yemen’s Mocha port and later southeast of Aden, avoided damage and no injuries were reported among the crew, said the Joint Maritime Information Center, a US-led multinational naval task force. The vessel continued its transit after evading the attacks.
Oras Shipping, the operator of the Anadolu S, is owned by Salih Zeki Çakır, a close associate of the former prime minister. Çakır is a known shipowner who employed Yıldırım briefly before his career in government.
Çakır is linked to other ventures that also allegedly conducted trade with Israel. Documents reveal that Oras Shipping is connected to Nova Warrior Limited, an offshore entity established in Malta by Yıldırım’s son, Erkam Yıldırım.
Turkey’s government, a vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, faces allegations of hypocrisy. Investigative journalist Metin Cihan disclosed data showing multiple Turkish-owned ships continuing trade with Israeli ports during the peak of Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Houthis Launch Two Missile Attacks on Turkish Cargo Ship in Red Sea
Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched two missile attacks within 24 hours on the Panama-flagged Turkish cargo vessel Anadolu S as it traveled through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Both attacks targeted the 52,200 dwt… pic.twitter.com/WpnMOCcjXI
— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 20, 2024
Critics slammed Oras Shipping for its hypocrisy after the company, accused of making million-dollar shipments to Israel, highlighted its donations of food to Palestinians in Gaza on social media.
Yıldırım family’s shipping empire
In 2017, an investigation by European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) into then-Prime Minister Yıldırım’s family business revealed that the family possesses shipping and related assets exceeding 100 million euros.
Their business includes 11 foreign-flagged ships managed through a network of companies in Malta, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and possibly the Marshall Islands and Panama. The shipping operation, obscured in tax havens and opacity, is financed through substantial loans from Swiss and Turkish banks.
Yıldırım’s career in shipping started in 1994 with İstanbul Fast Ferries Company (İDO) owned by the city, which was then governed by newly elected mayor Erdoğan. Yıldırım was dismissed in 2000 due to a scandal involving favoritism toward his uncle. Unfazed, Yıldırım shifted to politics, joining Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001 and subsequently becoming minister of transport after the AKP’s 2002 election victory. Despite parliamentary inquiries, Yıldırım has been reticent about discussing his family’s business operations, only stating that he handed over his shipping business to his children upon becoming a deputy in 2002.
The EIC investigation traced the Yıldırım family’s shipping network to Malta-based entities like Dertel Shipping Limited, Nova Ponza Limited, Rory Malta Limited and Nova Warrior Limited, managed by Süleyman Vural, Yıldırım’s nephew and Erkam, his son. These companies, along with others in the Dutch Caribbean, are part of a sophisticated structure designed to obscure ownership and minimize tax liabilities.
The first traces of the Yıldırıms’ offshore adventures appear in Malta in 1998, via a company that alludes to the Turkish provenance of its shareholders — Tulip Maritime Limited.
This was headed by the former prime minister’s uncle, Yılmaz Erence, and contacts from Turkey’s political and business world. These included Çakır and Ahmet Ergün, President Erdoğan’s advisor from his days as İstanbul mayor, as well as a former deputy and high court judge, Abbas Gökçe.
According to revelations by Erdoğan’s former confidant Ali Yeşildağ in a series of YouTube videos posted in May 2023, Yıldırım himself is just a keeper of a vast fortune that belongs to Erdoğan, who put him in charge of İstanbul city’s ferry company and to whom he owes his career.
Trade with Israel
After the Palestinian militant organization Hamas launched attacks on southern Israel from the Palestinian enclave of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 people and resulted in the taking of 240 hostages, Israel retaliated by pounding Gaza, leading to thousands of civilian casualties, which then turned into a ground offensive accompanied by a suffocating blockade.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, more than 43,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, mostly civilians.
Israel’s harsh response has drawn widespread global criticism, with the country facing accusations of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in a case filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, where Turkey has appealed to intervene against Israel.
Erdoğan, who long marketed himself in the Muslim world as a champion of Palestinian rights and a strong critic of Tel Aviv, unleashed a harsh rhetoric which has culminated in him repeatedly accusing Israel of being a “terrorist state.”
However, the revelation that Erdoğan and his close circle continued trade with Israel, thanks to meticiulous and continued reporting by investigative journalist Cihan for over a year, drew the ire of critics who pointed out the hypocrisy of condemning Israel at the government level while privately pursuing a lucrative trade with the country.
In May 2024, the Turkish government announced a halt to all trade with Israel. However, open-source data reveals that Israeli ships continue to visit Turkish ports, while exports to Palestinian territories have surged since the trade ban with Tel Aviv, suggesting that goods destined for Israel are being rerouted through Palestine.