Turkey’s state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) has announced that it will auction off RHG Enertürk Enerji, an energy production company previously owned by the Boydak family, for 4.6 billion Turkish lira ($112 million), continuing the selloff of companies seized after a coup attempt in 2016, Turkish Minute reported.
According to the official tender, published Tuesday in the Official Gazette, the sale will cover 100 percent of the shares in RHG Enertürk Enerji Üretim ve Ticaret A.Ş. Interested bidders must put forward a deposit of 250 million lira to participate. The process will combine closed bidding and an open auction, with applications due on September 22 and bids opening on September 24.
The sale comes as the TMSF continues to liquidate assets once belonging to Boydak Holding, a large industrial group based in central Turkey that was seized in 2016 after its owners were accused of supporting the faith-based Gülen movement, which the government accuses of orchestrating the failed coup. The movement denies any involvement in the coup attempt or in terrorism.
Earlier this year the TMSF sold Bellona, one of Boydak’s leading furniture brands, for 8.1 billion lira. Another subsidiary, İstikbal Mobilya, has been put up for sale with an estimated value of 12.5 billion lira, with a tender scheduled for September 30.
Boydak Holding, once one of Turkey’s most prominent family-run conglomerates, had major investments in furniture, textiles and energy. Its chairman, Hacı Boydak, and CEO Memduh Boydak were arrested in March 2016, months before the coup attempt, on charges of supporting the Gülen movement. In 2018 Turkish courts sentenced Memduh Boydak to 18 years in prison and Hacı Boydak to nearly 12 years. Their convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals in 2023, and they remain in prison along with other Boydak executives.
The state’s confiscation of Boydak companies was part of a broader purge that targeted businesses, schools, media outlets and charities accused of links to the movement. Rights groups say the seizures were carried out without meaningful judicial review or compensation. A 2023 report by the Institute for Diplomacy and Economy estimated that Turkey has confiscated around $50 billion in assets from more than 1.5 million people since 2016, warning that the scale of the confiscations may constitute “persecution” amounting to crimes against humanity under international law.
The TMSF, which is tasked with managing and liquidating seized assets, currently oversees roughly 700 companies taken over in the aftermath of the coup attempt, with their collective market value estimated between $4 billion and $5.4 billion.
