Journalist İsmail Arı wrote about how religious orders took root in the state! The 'octopus' structure inside the state, from Kızılay to Menzil

Interview and photographs: Sercan Meriç

Journalist İsmail Arı, author of the books Kızılay Holding and Menzil'in Kasası, has been receiving threats for a long time. Arı, against whom numerous investigations have been opened, says the pressure increased after the book he wrote about Menzil. We spoke with Arı — who says "Those who touch it get burned, but how these decisions were made will come to light in a few years" — about the books he has written, the latest developments at Kızılay and Menzil, and how religious communities and orders have built an "octopus structure" inside the state.

What is happening at Kızılay right now?

Kızılay first crossed my path in 2019. There was an incredible level of corruption at Kızılay — billions of liras were being embezzled. A large portion of Kızılay's revenues comes from donations, and it also has areas where it generates its own income, such as mineral water production. But I saw that its managers were spending the money in Kızılay's coffers as if it were their own and had set up a massive corruption scheme. I repeatedly raised the issue of how Kızılay's budget of billions of liras was being spent. I persistently reported that Kızılay was acting as an intermediary for "tax avoiders." I reported that Kızılay's management was made up of unqualified individuals, that the AKP had fully taken it over, and that Kızılay had become an employment depot.

In your view, what was the key turning point regarding Kızılay?

The earthquake of 6 February 2023… Those unqualified staff bungled everything. While thousands, hundreds of thousands of people waited in the cold on the streets, it emerged that tents had been sold to aid organizations. It caused public outrage — there were protests in the streets, hundreds of criminal complaints. Kızılay's management showed no shame whatsoever. Kızılay's management should have resigned. They stayed silent for months, and only after a statement by Erdoğan did the then-Kızılay President Kerem Kınık resign. Kerem Kınık is also a former AKP municipal council member. He served as a director at İBB during the Erdoğan era. He then went into business and set up company after company. Then, at Erdoğan's request, he went to Kızılay in 2015 as deputy president, and in 2016 became Kızılay President.

Where does Kerem Kınık's power come from?

He is someone who has leaned entirely on the government, on Erdoğan. Despite that, he was forced to resign. An employment position was created for him at Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi. But his file related to all these crimes is still at the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office… Yet not even his statement can be taken. The fallout was limited to Kerem Kınık alone. Kınık was crossed off with a single statement from Erdoğan. The rest of the management remained in their posts. In fact, Kınık's seat was taken over by Fatma Meriç Yılmaz, who is known to be a member of the Menzil Community. Fatma Meriç Yılmaz — who is alleged to have entered university through nepotism as an academic, who became a Health Ministry bureaucrat during the tenure of Menzilci Recep Akdağ and climbed the ranks at a remarkable pace, and who then took the seat from Kerem Kınık again at Erdoğan's instruction — became Kızılay President. Now a figure affiliated with the Menzil Community is running Kızılay.

What started happening at Kızılay after Fatma Meriç Yılmaz became president?

There is an endless amount of material at Kızılay. I found that aid for Gaza and other aid had gone missing at Kızılay's Istanbul branch. What's more, it was Kızılay's own inspectors who identified this — it was a report kept secret like a state secret.

What happened to the Gaza aid?

A large number of people are being brought into Kızılay, made directors, made managers. You look at their backgrounds: people coming from Diyanet, people coming from other associations and foundations. Being a director at Kızılay is equivalent to being a bureaucrat in the public sector. Very serious salaries, official vehicles, every kind of privilege is in their hands. Kızılay is at the same time continuing to become a holding company. Kızılay also has a holding with more than 10 companies. They continue this process of becoming a holding. Those companies have board members. They used to receive attendance fees. Now they are not disclosing whether those attendance fees are still being paid or not. Most recently, Erdoğan also became Kızılay's neighbor.

Why?

They rented a large building in Kısıklı, Istanbul. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been living in a villa in Kısıklı for many years — when he comes to Istanbul, he has a residence there. Kızılay rented a large building very close to that location. They named it the "Istanbul Office." Who works there, how many people work there, what those employees do — none of it is known.

Why do you think such a need arose?

That area is also on the route Erdoğan's convoy passes through when going to and from his home. Perhaps they wanted Erdoğan to see them more. During the tenure of Fatma Meriç Yılmaz, who was installed in the seat after Kerem Kınık's resignation, Kızılay held another congress, an election was held, and she and her management were re-elected. Not a single prosecutor has the courage to take the statement of Fatma Meriç Yılmaz, Kerem Kınık, or any other Kızılay board member. The file sits on a prosecutor's desk at the Ankara Courthouse, and that prosecutor cannot say: "Come in, there have been hundreds of criminal complaints against you, they've all been consolidated with me. Come and give your statement here." Perhaps in a year or two they will say "No grounds for prosecution" or issue a decision not to pursue the case.

Can Kızılay's management not be elected independently of Erdoğan?

Kızılay's management cannot be elected independently of Erdoğan. In my book "Kızılay Holding," I have an interview with Ahmet Lütfü Akar, one of the former Kızılay presidents. Ahmet Lütfü Akar says: "During my presidency, I would meet with President Erdoğan before elections. I would also meet with him when he was Prime Minister. He would give lists. I would have my own suggestions, but he would not approve the vast majority of them. Because there are around 10 people on the Kızılay board — he would only consent to a few names, and the rest he would determine himself."

So Erdoğan determines the management…

Not just the board of directors… There is also the general manager and deputies — he was saying that Erdoğan personally determines those as well. In fact, it emerged that some of the people Erdoğan placed at Kızılay through his lists turned out to be FETÖ members. Erdoğan put FETÖ members in there, and then they were purged. It was through that purge that space was opened for Kerem Kınık and Menzilci Fatma Meriç Yılmaz. Erdoğan personally placed them there too. Because Erdoğan wanted it, the "tent trader" Kerem Kınık sat in that seat for years; because Erdoğan wanted it, Fatma Meriç Yılmaz was installed in the Kızılay seat, the presidential seat.

What size budget does Kızılay manage?

Kızılay's annual budget is more than 20 billion liras. It is in the position of being Turkey's largest holding. It has more than 10,000 employees. Kızılay is one of Turkey's largest holdings. No one manages that seat independently of Erdoğan. Tenders are awarded to people the government wants: community members, community companies, other loyalists…

Has Kızılay become one of Menzil's cash boxes?

Kızılay has genuinely become Menzil's cash box… In fact, I entered this path through Kızılay before I even started writing the book "Menzil'in Kasası." Because I saw that the Menzil Community was very powerful within Kızılay, and that Kızılay was making purchases from Menzil's companies. Kızılay holds a monopoly in Turkey in the blood business. Blood bags, other materials, their preservation, separation, and so on — there are many processes involved. In 2019 I noticed that deals worth millions of dollars had been made with a Menzil company. Then that company appeared again during the Covid-19 period. Covid-19 tests in Istanbul were contracted out to that company. It was said "Get them from there, don't let the money go to foreigners," and it was given to them. I saw the connections of many people in Kızılay's management to Menzil.

Like the new president Fatma Meriç Yılmaz?

I knew in 2019 that Yılmaz was a member of the Menzil Community. After the "Kızılay Holding" book, my path evolved toward "Menzil'in Kasası" and I wrote it. One of the biggest factors that brought me to this point was the earthquake of 6 February 2023. Because during that period, Menzilcis flooded the earthquake zone and organized "repentance sessions" on top of the rubble. We revealed that governors were calling the Menzil Community and pleading with them, saying "Let us host this person, let them stay in your village." In the lottery for earthquake housing, all the figures who run the Menzil Community somehow received homes. Among the first recipients of the homes built by TOKİ were the figures who run the Menzil Community. Five or six months after the earthquake, Menzil Community leader Abdülbaki Elhüseynî passed away. And it became one of the largest funeral ceremonies Turkey has ever seen. Convoys setting out from Istanbul went to Menzil. From Büyük Birlik Partisi members to AKP members, from MHP members to others — everyone was at that funeral. Bureaucrats, the Vice President, former minister Recep Akdağ — they were all there.

How do you assess the state's close interest in Menzil in recent times?

In recent times there is a popular "octopus" metaphor. In my view, one of the real octopuses is the Menzil Community. Because one arm of the octopus is in the MHP, one arm is in the AKP… A small arm of that octopus is in the CHP. One arm is in the bureaucracy, one arm is in the business world, in commerce. They have an association similar to MÜSİAD: TÜMSİAD… They are present in the field of education, they are present in the field of health. The real octopus is the Menzil Community. They are very powerful in the TSK, very powerful in the gendarmerie, very powerful in the police. They filled the space vacated by FETÖ very quickly. It's like pouring water into a glass — the glass fills rapidly, just like that. For example, it is known that Menzil is very powerful in the Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı. Just one year ago, an important figure from Menzil met with the Deputy Commander of the Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı. That figure then received a promotion. Now there are such allegations that…

Such as?

Let me lay this out in detail here for the first time… It is being said that Menzil Community's influence in the gendarmerie is so extensive that the gendarmerie's top brass does not want female gendarmes alongside them, does not want to share an elevator with female gendarmerie commanders, and that female musicians in the gendarmerie band have even been told "Don't come anymore" when hosting military delegations from abroad visiting the gendarmerie and TSK. The gendarmerie is not denying this. It is persistently being reported that with the new Jandarma Genel Komutanı General Ali Çardakçı, this situation has escalated even further, and that something like this has indeed occurred at the Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı.

What kind of influence does Menzil have inside the police?

They have very serious power inside the police as well. Even within the Presidential protection detail there are members of the Menzil Community. Just like the Fethullahists, they are a breath away from Erdoğan. We are living through the same thing over and over again. Because the government allows it, this community grows, expands, takes over public institutions, and acquires a vast commercial network. There is a video published three to five months ago by one of their current leaders, Muhammed Sâkî Elhüseynî: "The governor did whatever we said. We asked for zoning permits, he gave them; we asked for this, he gave it. They did this and that there." If things continue this way, the coming years look very bleak.

What is happening in the inheritance war within the Menzil Community?

The Menzil Community is very powerful, very active, but has been somewhat quiet for the past 1.5 years. They have their own internal conflicts and are on the verge of resolving them. Because Erdoğan himself, and the Palace, have intervened in that conflict. That fraternal conflict will end the way the government wants it to, and then after that fraternal conflict, Menzil will break its silence and show its true power.

After you wrote the book Menzil'in Kasası, many cases were opened against you. Do you think "After I wrote the book, they started coming after me even harder"?

After the book "Menzil'in Kasası" was published, some community-affiliated businesspeople named in the book filed various complaints in an attempt to have the book seized and destroyed. They wanted me to be prosecuted. Then I noticed something: I can say very clearly that after this book was published, the number of cases against me tripled or quadrupled, and the number of investigations into me increased fivefold. Because the Menzil Community has an incredible amount of power in the judiciary. Not just in the courts, but also in the Court of Cassation — they have enormous power there. It comes down to the "Those who touch it get burned" issue. During the process of writing this book, and still today, I speak with many bureaucrats, police officers, military officers, non-commissioned officers, judges, and prosecutors.

What do they tell you?

They tell me that in matters related to the Menzil Community, those who touch it get burned, that they are driven out, that they are subjected to various plots and slanders. There are many people who have left their posts. Those who choose to resist are demoted and sidelined into "dead-end" positions, or transferred elsewhere. I believe the investigations against me have increased due to the Menzil Community's influence. There are other ongoing investigations against me. I even know that one investigation is at the level where I could be tried with aggravated life imprisonment. I know that I am accused of "attempting to overthrow the government."

Well, many journalists are being arrested in early-morning raids. Do you have such a concern?

I am not afraid of being arrested or detained. I am not afraid of cases being opened against me either. Because there is nothing I have done wrong. I did what was right — I did journalism, I reported the news. It has always been this way in the past: they said "sorry" to journalists, writers, cartoonists, politicians, threw them in prison for 3 years, 5 years, then said "sorry." And the same thing is happening now. Our journalist colleague Furkan Karabay is still in prison, journalist Ercüment Akdeniz is still in prison. I know the charges against Furkan Karabay even though he does not yet have an indictment; I have read Ercüment Akdeniz's indictment — and even if they receive sentences under political pressure at the first-instance trial, those sentences will be overturned on appeal, overturned at the AYM, and then the state will say: "Sorry, we apologize. We are paying this much compensation per day for the days we kept you in prison, and we apologize." In a few years, how these decisions were made, who called whom and how, will all come to light. Those people will spend far longer in prison for the crimes they have committed — of that I have no doubt.

You are also being heavily targeted with threatening messages… Were you able to get any results from the complaints you filed about this?

Because Turkey has increasingly turned into a gang-mafia state, we see journalists being threatened for reporting on such structures. I too was targeted by a structure known to be linked to the Şahinler Group. Gökhan Göz… I had previously reported that this group had built an illegal farm, that they were making enormous profits from it, and I covered it. I obtained documents and records. Restaurants, hotels, pools, licensed and unlicensed venues… They were making very large sums of money, and the site had no zoning permit. It was built on agricultural land. I left a note saying "Use your right of reply," no statement was made. Later, the legal process moved forward against them, and those illegal farm buildings were demolished. Then I learned that an investigation was being conducted at the Istanbul Çağlayan Courthouse related to Gökhan Göz. In that investigation, there were allegations that Gökhan Göz had paid 600,000 euros in bribes in the judiciary, that he had escaped the "influencers" investigation his name had previously been linked to in this way, that despite being a fugitive for 6 months he had gotten away by paying bribes in the judiciary, and that the arrest warrant had been lifted after 6 months. I reported on this. We published the story, and that evening Gökhan Göz was detained, and the next morning he was arrested and sent to prison.

Did the threats to your phone and your family start after all this?

Yes, on 15–16 May they sent messages to my grandmother, they called my aunt who lives in another city — threats, insults… That was the last time I filed a complaint. No one from the judiciary or the police called to ask about me, not a sound. Then they sent another message. They said they were following me. I gave an additional statement again. I was told that a protection order had been issued for me by decision of the Provincial Police Directorate. I thank the Provincial Police Director and District Police Director officials who handled this matter sensitively. There is physical protection in place for me. In this country, anyone can be taken in a single night. Whether they are on a mountaintop or in a shantyhouse in the city, the state finds whoever it wants whenever it wants, and takes them whenever it wants. There is a deliberate choice not to intervene here. I have many questions in my mind about this too: Is it perhaps because of the Menzil Community, or because I am not an AKP-aligned "sycophant" journalist? Someone is deliberately blocking things there — I don't yet know what is happening behind the curtain, but nothing stays secret in this country.