Turkish President Erdogan’s ‘ghost son’ Ahmet Burak Erdoğan exposed in secret wiretaps, exempted from military service, killéd a famous Turkish female singer (reckléss driving), never appeared in court, but is still a billionaire 1/ 24
#SanctionTurkey #StopErdogan

Very little is known about Ahmet Burak Erdoğan. He’s a multimillionaire businessman who owns at least 6 ships, but his companies don’t even have a website. You could count on the fingers of one hand the number of photos on the Internet featuring Burak. #SanctionTurkey 2/24

He doesn’t have any social media accounts: NO Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or any other platform. He doesn’t comment on anything, even if it has shaken the entire Turkey or the world. #SanctionTurkey 3/24

For example: he didn’t utter a word during or after the failed coup of July 15, 2016. He was the only family member that didn’t attend the swearing-in of his father after he was first elected president in 2014. 4/24

He didn’t attend his grandmother’s funeral, nor did he share the joy of some of his siblings’ wedding ceremonies. Unlike Erdoğan’s other children, who are frequently seen in the media, he has been a total recluse for some unknown reason, #SanctionTurkey 5/24

deliberately eschewing any kind of social interaction. He doesn’t live in Turkey. Stories, comments and tweets that mention his name are immediately deleted under court orders that his lawyers secure in no time. #SanctionTurkey 6/24

He even cannot tolerate a page on Wikipedia’s Turkey site about him, which was already very short and only included a couple of references to publicly available information. #SanctionTurkey 7/24

It has been widely speculated that his avoidance of public attention started after he hit Sevim Tanürek, a classical music singer, in a traffic accident in 1998. She subsequently died from her injuries. 8/24

He was a university student in İstanbul at the time, reportedly didn’t have a driver’s license and hit the singer while she was in a crosswalk. The car dragged Tanürek for about 65 meters. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was mayor of İstanbul. He hurriedly sent Burak abroad. 9/24

According to eyewitnesses, municipal workers were immediately dispatched to the scene of the accident, and the entire street was cleaned up. Burak Erdoğan never appeared in court for his ensuing trial. 10/24

The initial police report noted that Burak was at fault on three out of of eight counts and wasn’t paying attention to the road, so the prosecution opened a case against him, demanding a sentence of between three and 20 months for causing injury 11/24

by reckless driving. When Tanürek died after a week in intensive care the prosecution changed the indictment, seeking between two and five years in prison for Burak. However, the chairman of the traffic specialization department of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, 12/24

Eyüp Çakmak, submitted a report in which he found that all the fault lay with Tanürek, based on this report, the court acquitted Burak of all charges. Çakmak was appointed president of the Turkish Maritime Organization (TDİ) in 2004, after Erdoğan became prime minister. 13/24

Erdoğan has widely been accused of manipulating the justice system to get his son Burak off the hook, but his lawyer has always categorically denied the allegations. 14/24

In an attempt to explain Burak’s avoidance of the public eye, unlike his other siblings, some have speculated that he is at odds with his father because of a debt of TL 500,000, but this has to be far from the truth since that’s only loose change for the president. 15/24

Besides, Erdoğan himself has actively supported his son’s business deals, as he did when his son needed capital to purchase a ship. Not only that, his brother Mustafa and his brother-in-law Ziya İlgen, in whom Erdoğan puts great trust, are Burak’s business partners. 16/24

In the famous “zeroing” conversation between Erdoğan and his son Bilal, in which Erdoğan asked Bilal to get rid of cash stashed in the houses of family members as soon as possible to avoid getting caught in a possible police raid during the December 17, 17/24

2013 corruption operation, Erdoğan said that he should keep in close contact with his brother Burak while getting rid of the money secreted away in various places. 18/24

Burak was born on July, 4, 1979, the first son of now-President Erdoğan. He attended the Kartal İmam-Hatip High School and later enrolled at İstanbul Bilgi University. After the accident that killed Tanürek, he went to London to study 19/24

economics on a scholarship provided by businessman Remzi Gür upon Erdoğan’s request. He married Sema, his classmate from high school, on February 23, 2001. Sema was the daughter of Osman Ketenci, who would also become Burak’s partner in the marine business. 20/24

Burak was exempted from obligatory military service after obtaining a medical report from the Kasımpaşa Military Hospital for an undisclosed health problem. Not long after, Burak made his entrée into the business world in a partnership with Mustafa Erdoğan and Ziya İlgen. 21/24

The three of them bought a company in the marine business on April 10, 2006 and changed its name from Turkuaz to Bumerz, derived from the names of the partners. 22/24

Burak entered into another partnership eight months later, and on January 19, 2007 established another company in the marine transportation sector. The MB Denizcilik brand was devised as creatively as Bumerz was: the partners’ initials. 23/24

Burak Erdoğan appeared at his sister Sümeyye’s wedding in 2016.
Source: Nordic Monitor 03/2020
Photos: Web / Nordic / Sinematurk
#SanctionTurkey #StopErdogan 24/24