The Turkish government has started preparations to sell Bellona, a leading furniture brand seized from its original owners in 2016 as part of a sweeping post-coup crackdown, the Bold Medya news website reported on Wednesday.
The Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), a state agency responsible for managing seized assets and failed financial institutions, announced in the Official Gazette that it will sell the entirety of Bellona, which is currently state-owned. The starting bid is set at 7 billion lira ($189 million), with a deposit requirement of 350 million lira ($9.45 million).
Bellona, founded in 1995 in Kayseri, was part of Boydak Holding, a major Turkish conglomerate. 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.
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 conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.
Since the state takeover, Bellona has faced allegations of mismanagement, irregular sales and a lack of transparency in its operations. The upcoming sale marks the latest in a series of government auctions involving businesses confiscated during the post-coup period, a process that has drawn legal challenges and criticism from former owners.
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.
