The Uzan empire is crumbling
They claim that the government first ruined their energy business by ending their lucrative contracts to generate and distribute electric power to the southern provinces. They fail to mention that they did not honor their contracts and also tried to create a monopoly by terrorizing their prospective rivals.
They also claim that the government ruined their financial business by taking over their Imar Bank and Adabank. Again they fail to mention that these banks were used as the money vaults of the Uzan family and just plundered the savings of ordinary people. Their shady dealings have even left the banking experts in shock. They are now accused of plundering the funds of the banks in a very arbitrary manner and also money laundering.
They claim that the government is also trying to silence their media empire that consists of TV and radio stations along with newspapers. They say a one-month ban by the independent regulatory body RTUK against the six TV stations is proof of this attitude. Yet, they fail to acknowledge that they used their media empire to spread false information and also insult everyone opposed to them and that the independent regulatory body which has nothing to do with the government decided to protect the public.
So why did the Uzans manage to survive all these years if they were so crooked and twisted? The answer is the fact that former governments that owed them favors protected them. Or politicians who were scared that the Uzans might release some blackmail material about them protected them. But with the AK Party government all that came to an end. Those who made a living through fraud, plundering public funds and corruption realized that the AK Party would not tolerate any of this. They could not blackmail the AK Party because it was simply clean.
The Uzans ended up suffering setbacks on the domestic front. But what they have hit in the domestic front is nothing compared to their troubles in the international front. A court case that has ended in New York on Thursday has ruled that the Uzans are fraudulent and have to pay $4 billion dollar in damages to Motorola’s financing affiliate.
So the Uzans are now convicts with international reputation. They simply cannot argue that they are getting a bad deal in Turkey and that they are victims of a plot. They have plundered the funds of people at home and abroad and they have been convicted.
Cem Uzan should resign as the head of the Young Party (GP) immediately. There should be no witch-hunt against the Uzans. Everything should be sorted out in the courts but then everyone should remember that in the past the Uzans have had a reputation of shady deals in some courts.
