Turkish authorities are preparing to auction off two major companies seized after the country’s 2016 attempted coup, drawing renewed attention to human rights and property rights concerns in the years since the failed military takeover, the TR724 news website reported.
The state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) announced tenders to auction İstikbal Mobilya, once part of the family-owned Boydak Holding conglomerate, and Akfel Gaz, a leading private natural gas importer.
İstikbal was seized by authorities after its owners were accused of ties to the Gülen movement, alleged to have orchestrated the 2016 coup attempt. Akfel Gaz was put under state control in 2017 after regulators cited alleged links to the Gülen network along with shareholder and financial irregularities, though its exact affiliation has been contested.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, 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 a conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan began to target the movement’s members. He designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016 and intensified the crackdown on it following an abortive putsch in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
According to the official tender, the state will sell a 100 percent stake in İstikbal Mobilya with an estimated value of 12.5 billion Turkish lira (about $380 million), requiring a 625 million lira bid bond. The deadline for applications is September 30.
A 2023 report from the Institute for Diplomacy and Economy (instituDE) estimates that Turkey has seized approximately $50 billion in assets from more than 1.5 million people affiliated with the Gülen movement since 2016. The report argues that such coordinated, large-scale confiscations — often carried out without meaningful judicial review or compensation — may meet the legal definition of “persecution” amounting to crimes against humanity under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute.
Boydak Holding, based in central Turkey, was a major industrial group with significant operations in furniture, textiles and energy. In 2016 authorities seized the holding and its subsidiaries, accusing its owners of financially supporting the faith-based Gülen movement. The takeover was part of a broader government purge targeting businesses, media outlets and institutions suspected of links to the movement.
Former Boydak Chairman Hacı Boydak and CEO Memduh Boydak along with several company officials had been put in pretrial detention in March 2016, even before the coup attempt, on charges of supporting the movement.
In 2018 Memduh Boydak was given a jail sentence of 18 years on conviction of leading a terrorist organization. Hacı Boydak received almost 12 years on charges of membership in a terrorist organization. Their sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals in 2023. They are still in prison along with several other members of the Boydak family who were arrested following the coup attempt.
The market value of the approximately 700 companies taken over by the TMSF following the coup attempt is estimated to be between $4 billion and $5.4 billion in total.
