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Demirören Holding Chair Yıldırım Demirören
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The Demirören Media Group has filed lawsuits against journalists who reported on the loans it took from the state-owned Ziraat Bank to finance its purchases in sectors such as media, games of chance and energy.
The media group belonging to the Demirören Holding filed a lawsuit with the Bakırköy Penal Court of First Instance concerning the news report titled, "The luckiest golf player... Ziraat Bank leased the land it took from Demirören in return for a loan to Demirören again."
According to the report by journalist Hazal Ocak published in the daily Cumhuriyet on October 28, the bank took over a land mortgaged by the holding after it failed to pay a loan of 300 million dollars and 1.12 billion lira. The bank later leased the land in Göktürk, İstanbul, to its former owner for five years for 15 million lira.
Also, a short time after the holding mortgaged the land (September 4, 2018), it was zoned for development by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, which multiplied the land's value. A total of 206 housing units with an average size of 200 square meters could be built on the land, said the Cumhuriyet report.
The Demirören Media claimed that the news article included "derogatory statements," exceeded the limits and purposes of news reporting, and damaged its commercial reputation.
It demanded a symbolic compensation of 3 kuruş, or 0.3 lira from Alev Coşkun, the rights holder of the Cumhuriyet Foundation.
The company also filed complaints against two other outlets, Oda TV (Soner Yalçın) and Medya Radar (Denizhan Erkoç), which quoted Cumhuriyet's report. It demanded the same amount of compensation from them as well.
In its petition, the company emphasized its "domestic and national" capital and listed the investments it has made while not giving information about how much of a loan it took from Ziraat Bank and how much of the loan was repaid.
The second lawsuit
About two weeks after the report subject to litigation, Hazal Ocak made another report about the Demirören Holding. The article that made the headline of the newspaper on November 14 was titled, "Demirören documents from Court of Accounts."
The Court of Accounts' 2020 draft audit report on Ziraat Bank included the golf courses that were leased back to the Demirören Holding and a section titled "Failure to Ensure the Repayment of the Loans Extended to a Customer Company of the İstanbul Corporate Branch," according to the Cumhuriyet report.
One day after this news report was published, the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, Aykut Küçükkaya, wrote a column article about Demirören's lawsuit against the newspaper.
"Take out a loan of 1 billion dollars from a state-owned bank and don't pay it back... Rent the land you mortgaged from the bank and pay 250 thousand lira per month!" he wrote.
The "crime" of disclosing Court of Accounts reports
The Demirören Media filed another case against Alev Coşkun and Hazal Ocak for these news and column articles. It again alleged that the limits and purposes of reporting had been exceeded. Different from the first lawsuit, it also claimed that its commercial secrets were distorted.
Citing other companies as an example, Demirören's lawyers stated, "It is perfectly normal for the client company to have a credit relationship with financial organizations."
They also claimed that disclosing information in the Court of Accounts reports to the public was illegal as those reports are only submitted to the parliament.
Demirören's attorneys again demanded a 3 kuruş compensation. Accepting their application, the Bakırköy 7th Penal Court of First Instance ruled that the two applications should be merged.
Ocak and the other journalists are expected to appear before the court in the coming days.
"The truth can't be covered up"
Speaking about the lawsuits, Ocak said she had been following the issue for a long time and added, "The truth can't be covered up."
"I first brought up the controversial loan relationship between Ziraat Bank and Demirören Holding and the mortgage of the golf courses used by the residents in return for loans in 2018. I've been following the process since then.
"I wrote about how sports fields used by the residents were zoned for development by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and how the zoning was canceled in accordance with court rulings.
"I revealed the loan was not paid back and the mortgaged golf courses were handed over to Ziraat Bank in return. I wrote these lands were leased to Demirören at the end of the process.
"Because I wrote the truth, the Demirören Holding filed a 3 kuruş lawsuit against me. However, the whole process was reflected in the audit report of the Presidency of the Court of Accounts. So, the truth can't be covered up."
| About the Demirören Media Group In March 2018, the Demirören Group purchased all the media assets of the Doğan Group for 916 million dollars. Demirören Group was the owner of the Milliyet newspaper and Vatan newspaper. After purchasing the media assets of Doğan Group, the Group now owns 5 newspapers, including Hürriyet, Hürriyet Daily News, Posta and Fanatik; it has a news agency (DHA), a distribution company (YAYSAT), two TV channels (Kanal D and CNNTURK). The Vatan daily was closed on October 31, 2018 and continues publishing digitally as gazetevatan.com. Demirören Group A.Ş.'s capital is 592 million Turkish lira. Its shares entirely are owned by the Demirören Family, which openly supports the ruling AKP and has close ties with President Tayyip Erdoğan. Demirören family is active in sectors such as media, energy, mining and construction. The recordings of alleged phone conversations between Erdoğan Demirören and then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were leaked in May 2014, in which the Prime Minister scolds Demirören for a news story, asking for those responsible to be fired, and Demirören is heard crying. Erdoğan Demirören was the majority shareholder of the conglomerate 'Demirören Holding A.Ş.'until he died on June 8, 2018. After his death, his son Yıldırım Demirören was elected as chairperson of executive board at Demirören Holding. Demirören Group has shut down Yaysat (the Publication Company of Demirören) on October 31, 2018. Yelda Demirören, the daughter of Yıldırım Demirören, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Demirören Holding, and Haluk Kalyoncu (the son of Hasan Kalyoncu, the founder of the Kalyon Group) got married on April 13, 2019. President Erdoğan and his wife Emine Erdoğan were the marriage witnesses. The marriage was reported as the company marriage of Turkuvaz and Demirören Groups. It is known that the amount of the loan provided by the state bank Ziraat Bank in the sale of Doğan Media Group to Demirören Group was 675 million US dollars and it was a 2-year non-refundable loan with a maturity of 10 years. CLICK - Media Ownership Monitor Turkey CLICK - Media in Turkey: Owners in data, transparency and concentration in findings |
(HA/VK)
