100 institutions of the Republic’s economy

Ziraat Bankası

Ziraat Bankası A.Ş., one of six public banks operating in Turkey, is the continuation of the Memleket Sandıkları, founded in 1863 during the Ottoman Empire by Midhat Paşa.

After World War I, when the country came under occupation, branches in occupied territories were attached to the “Ziraat Bankası Administrative Center” established by the Greeks in İzmir. After the opening of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) in 1920, branches in areas under TBMM control were attached to the Ankara branch. 

In 1922, the İzmir and İstanbul organizations also came under Ankara, and the bank regained its unity. Under a law enacted in 1924, the bank ceased to be a state institution and became a joint-stock company. 

In 1975, a representative office was opened in Hamburg and three branches in Cyprus. In 1977, regional directorates were established and a decentralized management approach began to be adopted. In 1981, the Ziraat Bankası Museum, Turkey’s first banking museum, was established. 

In 1988, for the first time, a single region was handled separately in agricultural support, and credit support tailored to the region’s characteristics began to be provided to producers in the Southeastern Anatolia Project region. In 1989, the first credit card was issued, the first consumer loan was granted, gold sales (Ziraat Altın) began, and the bank’s first investment fund was established. In 2001, Türkiye Emlak Bankası was merged with Ziraat Bankası and closed. 

After the 2001 Turkish economic crisis, it began to be managed by a joint board of directors with other public banks; this practice ended in 2005.

İŞ BANKASI

In July 1924, Mustafa Kemal convened the Council of Ministers and expressed his desire for the establishment of a national bank with the words: “As one of the foremost measures that will save and elevate the homeland, the establishment of a fully modern and national bank born directly of the people’s credit and trust...”

İş Bankası, the first national bank of the Republican era, was founded on August 26, 1924, under Atatürk’s directives and in line with the decisions taken at the First İzmir Economic Congress. 

İş Bankası began operations under the leadership of its first general manager, Celal Bayar, with two branches and 37 employees. Its nominal capital was 1 million TL. The 250,000 TL portion of this capital that was actually paid in was covered personally by Atatürk.

On September 9, 1924, the bank was opened with a ceremony held in its first building on İstasyon Caddesi. State dignitaries, government members, deputies, the diplomatic corps, and Ankara notables and merchants were invited to the opening ceremony. Since the number of guests reached 150, no hall large enough to accommodate everyone could be found, and the guests were hosted in groups. Lemonade and cake were served at the ceremony, and a total of 120 lira was spent on the opening.

Carrying out all banking transactions in Turkey, launching industrial development, mobilizing national savings, financing basic economic initiatives and meeting credit needs were activities of vital importance for a newly founded country.

İşbankası, which has made major contributions not only to the financial sector but also to the development of industry in Turkey, has held stakes in nearly 300 companies since its establishment.

The bank’s portfolio structure has become simpler over time. As of December 2022, it had direct shareholdings in 29 companies operating in the main groups of finance, glass, energy, technology, health and services, while the number of companies it controlled directly and indirectly was 113, and it had direct and indirect shareholdings in 136 companies.

ANADOLU SİGORTA

Turkey’s long-established insurance institution was founded in 1925 at the initiative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk under the leadership of Türkiye İş Bankası. The company, the most important representative of the insurance sector in the early Republican period, introduced new insurance categories to Turkey in the 1980s. In 1983, it launched Turkey’s package insurance system and offered Mavi Sigorta policies, providing 17 separate coverages together, for the first time. In 1984, it introduced “Geleceğin Sigortası,” the most comprehensive life policy adapted to Turkish conditions. In 1991, the life branch was transferred under the law to Anadolu Hayat Sigorta Şirketi. In 2007, it became the first insurance company in Turkey to exceed the threshold of $1 billion in total premium production.

İTÜ

Mühendishane-i Bahrî-i Hümâyûn, founded in 1773 during the reign of Mustafa III as a military school to provide engineering education, aimed to train deck officers and shipbuilding officers and was one of the Ottoman Empire’s first Western-referenced educational institutions.

In 1795, Mühendishane-i Berrî-i Hümâyûn was founded to train artillery and fortification officers, and later Hendese-i Mülkiye, the school’s civilian branch, was established. While the military branch of the Mühendishane continues today as the Turkish Military Academy and Naval Academy, its civilian branch formed İTÜ.

Today İTÜ is a university spread across six campuses in total, including its main Ayazağa Campus in Maslak, İstanbul’s business center: four on İstanbul’s European side, one on the Anatolian side and one in Cyprus. Education still continues in Ottoman-era buildings at the Maçka, Taşkışla and Gümüşsuyu campuses. İTÜ graduates played a major role in Turkey’s growth and development in the early years of the Republic and put their signatures under many firsts and many engineering works in the country.

Many firsts in engineering in Turkey were achieved by İTÜ, including the first television broadcasts in Turkey, the establishment of the first university radio station, the first use of a computer at a university, the first satellite sent into space by a Turkish university, and the development of the first domestic communications satellite, the first domestic helicopter and the first domestic driverless car.

TEKEL

TEKEL, whose roots date back to before the Republic, became a leading actor in Turkey’s tobacco and alcoholic beverages sector. The first monopoly for tobacco was established in 1862. By 1883, monopoly revenues from salt, tobacco and alcoholic beverages were assigned to the “Düyunu Umumiye.” Later, the privilege to operate the Tobacco Monopoly was transferred to the Memaliki Osmaniye Duhanları Müşterek Menfaa Reji Şirketi. The Reji company began operations in 1884.

In 1923, all assets, rights and duties of the “Reji” company passed to the state. In 1925, it was decided that tobacco and tobacco-related services would be carried out by the state. Throughout the history of the Republic, many factories were put into operation, while the number of employees within TEKEL also increased over the years. By the 1980s, critical developments regarding TEKEL began. In 1984, TEKEL began importing foreign cigarettes. In 1986, permission was granted to produce cigarettes on condition of partnership with TEKEL.

In 1991, cigarette production, import and sale were liberalized under certain conditions. The organization, included in the scope of privatization in 2001, was sold for $292 million in 2004.  

İETT

İETT, the architect of many firsts in Turkey, began its İstanbul journey in 1869 with the establishment of the Dersaadet Tramway Company. The first horse-drawn trams entered service in 1871. In 1875, Tünel, the world’s second-oldest subway after London’s, was put into operation.

Meanwhile, electric tram operations began in 1914. The Electric Tramway and Tünel operation, which was run for a time by various companies, was nationalized in 1939. The institution took the name İstanbul Electric Tramway and Tünel (İETT) General Directorate under Law No. 3645.

In 1945, gasworks and distribution systems were transferred to İETT. This service was terminated in 1993. 

Bus service began in 1930 and trolleybus service in 1961. Electricity distribution was transferred to TEK in 1982. The Mavi Kart application was introduced in 1980. In 1985, the management, operation and supervision of privately operated public buses were transferred to İETT. 

In 2013, 1,705 new and comfortable buses joined the İETT fleet. In 2014, 965 new drivers started work, and the İETT Academy was established to carry out training activities. In 2015, Akbil was fully replaced by İstanbulkart.

In 2018, 375 fully domestically produced buses joined the İETT fleet. In 2019, female security officers began working on the metrobus line. In 2020, female drivers started duty.

KURU KAHVECİ MEHMET EFENDİ

It was founded in 1871 by Mehmet Efendi in Fatih, İstanbul. It is one of Turkey’s oldest businesses. Mehmet Efendi, born in Fatih, İstanbul, in 1857, studied at Süleymaniye Medrese and then began working in his father’s shop.

Mehmet Efendi, who took over the business in 1871, began roasting raw coffee, grinding it in mortars and selling it ready-made to his customers. As the first to offer ground coffee ready-made to coffee lovers, Mehmet Efendi came to be known as “Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi” because of this innovation.

After Mehmet Efendi died in 1931, his sons Hasan, Hulusi and Ahmet Bey continued their father’s profession. In 1934, the family also took the surname “Kurukahveci” under the Surname Law. After Ahmet Rıza Kurukahveci also died, management was taken over by the brothers Hulusi Kurukahveci and Mehmet Kurukahveci.

İTO

The İstanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) was founded in İstanbul in 1882 as the Dersaadet Chamber of Commerce, a commercial institution that regulated and recorded people’s commercial transactions and kept registers belonging to businesses. With a regulation issued on June 13, 1910, chambers of commerce and industry and chambers of agriculture were separated again. In the same year, it was established as the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 

In 1923, participation in the İzmir Economic Congress took place, and the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce and Industry was nationalized. 

In 1924, the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce and Industry Journal began publication in two languages, Ottoman Turkish and French.

In 1925, the Regulation on Chambers of Commerce and Industry entered into force. Chambers were granted legal personality and membership in chambers became compulsory. That year the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce moved to 4. Vakıf Han. The İstanbul Commodity Exchange was established. 

İTO has 700,000 members and is regarded as one of the world’s oldest and largest chambers of commerce. The mission of this organization is described as developing Turkey and its members by keeping up with the times and steering international political and economic conditions to its advantage. 

PTT

The history of PTT, Turkey’s communications institution, dates back to before the Republic. The first postal organization was established in 1840 as a ministry as a result of developments following the Tanzimat Edict. Following the invention of the telegraph in 1843, telegraph service began in Turkey 11 years later, and a separate Telegraph Directorate went into operation in 1855. In 1871, the Postal Ministry and Telegraph Directorate were merged and transformed into the Ministry of Post and Telegraph. In 1876, an international postal transport network was established, while parcel and money-order transactions began to be accepted in 1901. After the first manual telephone exchange was put into service in İstanbul on May 23, 1909, the Ministry of Post and Telegraph was transformed in 1909 into the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone. In 1913, it took the name General Directorate of Post, Telegraph and Telephone. The PTT General Directorate, which operated under the Ministry of Interior in the early years of the Republic, continued its service under the Ministry of Public Works in 1933 as an annex-budget administration and under the Ministry of Transport in 1939. In 1954, the PTT General Directorate became a state economic enterprise (KİT). From 1995, the General Directorate of the Turkish Postal Administration began operating independently. In 2013, the institution’s duties were reorganized and it was restructured under the name “Posta ve Telgraf Teşkilatı Anonim Şirketi.” 

SANTRAL İSTANBUL

Silahtarağa Power Plant was established in 1914 in the Golden Horn, İstanbul’s oldest industrial district, as the Ottoman Empire’s first city-scale power plant. The facility supplied electricity to the city until 1983. Work to transform Silahtarağa Power Plant, a unique national industrial heritage site, into santralistanbul was carried out with contributions from public, private and civil society organizations.

The allocation of Silahtarağa Power Plant to İstanbul Bilgi University took place under a protocol signed with the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources on May 1, 2004.

Intensive renovation work was carried out at the power plant between 2004 and 2007, and it opened on September 8, 2007, under the name Santralistanbul.

Since its opening, Santralistanbul has hosted dozens of national and international exhibitions. It has also hosted various festivals, launches, conferences and outdoor activities, welcoming many important international artists and thinkers.

PİYALE

Piyale was founded in İzmir in 1922 by Hasan Tahsin Piyale under the name “Türk Makarna Fabrikası.” In 1930, a new factory using new molds brought from Italy went into operation in Alsancak. It continued production at the factory built in Bayraklı in 1955 under the name “Maktaş Makarnacılık ve Ticaret Anonim Şirketi.” From 1970 onward, it began producing products other than pasta. The company, hit hard by the 2001 economic crisis, changed hands and passed to Sabancı Holding under the name “Gıdasa.” Because the area where the factory was located was included within a tourism zone, the factory closed in 2007. It passed to Yıldız Holding in 2010 and became a Şok Market product in 2011.

TÜRK ŞEKER

Although some attempts were made during the Ottoman Empire (1840-1899) and in the following years to establish sugar factories in Turkey, these attempts could not be implemented and did not go beyond being a wish. Turkey suffered a severe sugar shortage both during World War I and during the War of Independence. 

To overcome this shortage, initiatives to establish a national sugar industry in Turkey emerged during the Republican period.

Uşak Terakki Ziraat T.A.Ş., founded in Uşak on April 19, 1923, with the participation of many local entrepreneurs, laid the foundation of the first sugar factory on November 6, 1925, and the factory opened for operation on December 17, 1926.

In 1933, the Turhal and Eskişehir sugar factories were established. 

Sugar production activities were carried out with four sugar factories, expanded from time to time, until 1950. In order to meet the increasing sugar need each year entirely through domestic production, the “Sugar Industry Expansion Program” prepared in 1951 ushered in a period of establishing new sugar factories. At the same time, a cooperativization movement, an example of social solidarity in agriculture, was launched to organize beet growers.

The Adapazarı (1953), Amasya (1954), Konya (1954), Kütahya (1954), Burdur (1955), Susurluk (1955), Kayseri (1955), Erzincan (1956), Erzurum (1956), Elazığ (1956) and Malatya (1956) sugar factories were established in succession. By 1956, the number of factories, which had been four in 1950, had risen to fifteen. The Ankara (1962) and Kastamonu (1963) sugar factories were developed and put into operation with 65 percent domestic resources (one machinery factory and two workshops). 

In subsequent years, to meet rising sugar demand, the machinery and facilities of the Afyon (1977), Muş (1982), Ilgın (1982), Bor (1983), Ağrı (1984) and Elbistan (1985) sugar factories, up to 95 percent of them, were produced in the existing five machinery factories and put into operation.

Between 1989 and 2001, the Erciş (1989), Ereğli (1989), Çarşamba (1989), Çorum (1991), Kars (1993), Yozgat (1998) and Kırşehir (2001) sugar factories were put into operation. With the Çumra, Boğazlıyan and Aksaray sugar factories that began operating in later years, the number of facilities producing beet sugar in Turkey rose to 33.

TCDD

Railways, which during the Ottoman Empire were mostly built and operated by capital owners under the build-operate model, began to be nationalized after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey under Law No. 506 published on May 24, 1924, and were structured as a state company under the name Chemins de fer d'Anatolie Baghdad / Anadolu-Bağdat Demiryolları (CFAB) Company.

Later, in order to carry out railway construction and operation together and provide broader working opportunities, the CFAB Company, Havâlî-yi Şarkiye Railways and the Railway Construction and Administration Directorate were merged under Law No. 1042 published on May 31, 1927, and the State Railways and Ports General Administration, a state institution, was established.

With Law No. 1483 published on January 30, 1929, this institution was replaced by the General Directorate of State Railways. Managed as an annex-budget state administration until 1953, the institution was turned into an economic state enterprise (İDT) under the name Republic of Turkey State Railways (TCDD) Enterprise by Law No. 6186 published on July 29, 1953. Finally, with Decree Law No. 233, the institution gained the status of a public economic organization (KİK).

Pursuant to Law No. 6461 on the Liberalization of Railway Transport in Turkey, published on May 1, 2013, TCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş. was established on June 14, 2016, as a subsidiary of TCDD. Under this structure, while TCDD continues to manage Turkey’s railway infrastructure as the Railway Infrastructure Operator, TCDD Taşımacılık carries passengers and freight on the railways as the Railway Train Operator.

GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF FOUNDATIONS

The General Directorate of Foundations is the directorate responsible for supervising foundations in Turkey; it was established on May 2, 1920, as the Ministry of Sharia and Foundations, and took its current name on March 3, 1924.

The General Directorate of Foundations has assumed a special role by managing foundations whose founders and trustees have died among the 41,500 Ottoman foundations that continued their activities during the Republic of Turkey period.

The General Directorate of Foundations has also undertaken the restoration, maintenance and property management of 18,500 historical buildings and 67,000 properties belonging to the aforementioned foundations. Another important function of the General Directorate of Foundations is the social services it provides to thousands of poor and needy people through the revenues of the foundations it manages. It also supervises the activities of approximately 4,500 foundations established after the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey.

THK

The Turkish Aeronautical Association, or THK for short, was founded on February 16, 1925, by order of Mustafa Kemal Paşa to establish the aviation industry in Turkey and to ensure the development of military, civil, sporting and touristic aviation. When it was founded, Cevat Abbas Gürer was the founder and president, and the association was called the “Türk Tayyare Cemiyeti”; in 1935 it took the name “Türk Hava Kurumu.”

THK holds the authority of Turkey’s “Aviation Federation.” Since August 5, 1925, it has had the status of an “association working for the public benefit.” Its headquarters are in Ankara.

Turkey’s first engine factory was established by THK at Gazi Forest Farm. The factory’s operations continued until 1951 and, due to the conditions of the period, it was transferred that year to the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation. This factory was completely closed in 1952.

The Turkish Aeronautical Association established a university in Ankara on March 3, 2011, to meet the personnel needs of the aviation sector. The university, which accepted its first students in the 2011-2012 period, began education with four faculties, two schools and three institutes.

DYO

The story of DYO, one of Turkey’s leading brands in the chemical sector, dates back to the 1920s. In 1927, the Yaşar family began trading paint in İzmir, and in 1941 the first domestic paint production was carried out. DYO’s paint factory went into operation in 1954. In 1958, the company began resin production and exports, stepping into international markets. By 1971, the company opened its first R&D laboratory, and by 1980 it began exporting finished products.

The Gebze factory entered service in 1984, and the company’s Russia operations began in 1986. A powder coatings factory in Manisa Turgutlu was added to new factory investments in 2014. With a new investment in 2018, the Çiğli Factory reached a total area of 124,000 square meters, and the powder coating facility was moved to the new investment area.

CBRT

After World War I, discussions and studies on establishing a central bank accelerated under the influence of the global trend toward creating central banks that would ensure issuance and allow countries to determine their own monetary policies independently, and with the aim of strengthening the political independence won through the War of Independence with economic independence.

At the 1923 İzmir Economic Congress, where this issue was addressed for the first time, emphasis was placed especially on the idea of establishing a “national state bank.”

In 1927, the draft law submitted by Finance Minister Abdülhalik Renda on the establishment of a central bank was accepted.

The Central Bank bill was prepared with contributions from Prof. Leon Morf of the University of Lausanne. The bill was adopted by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on June 11, 1930, and published in the Official Gazette on June 30, 1930, as Law No. 1715 on the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.

After functions carried out by different institutions and organizations were gathered under one roof, the Central Bank began operations on October 3, 1931.

According to its founding law, the Central Bank’s main objective was defined as supporting the country’s economic development. To this end, the bank was assigned the duties of setting rediscount rates, its main policy instrument; regulating the money market and money circulation; carrying out Treasury transactions; taking measures for the stability of the Turkish currency; conducting banknote issuance under a monopoly; and acting as the state’s treasurer.

Under the fixed exchange-rate regime implemented in this period, determining exchange rates belonged to the government.

IMPORTANT CHANGES WERE MADE IN 2001

The policy pursued by the Central Bank between 1995 and 1999 was aimed at ensuring stability in financial markets. Because inflation could not be brought under control, a new exchange-rate-based stabilization program was put into effect in 2000. However, the loss of confidence that increased in the economy toward the end of 2000 and the crisis that emerged in 2001 caused the program to be terminated.

After the structural transformation in the economy following the crisis, significant amendments were made to the Central Bank Law.

With these amendments made on April 25, 2001, ensuring price stability was clearly defined as the Central Bank’s primary objective.

It was stipulated that the bank would support the government’s growth and employment policies, provided this did not conflict with the objective of ensuring price stability.

Ensuring financial stability was defined as the bank’s supporting objective.

The Central Bank was prohibited from granting advances or loans to the Treasury and other public institutions and organizations, and from purchasing debt instruments issued by these institutions on the primary market. The Monetary Policy Committee was established to institutionalize monetary policy strategies and decision-making mechanisms.

INFLATION TARGETING WAS ADOPTED

In 2002, implementation of the inflation-targeting regime began.

From 2005 onward, to increase predictability regarding policy decisions, the Monetary Policy Committee meeting dates for one year were announced in advance within a calendar. At the end of this entire process, an explicit inflation-targeting regime began to be implemented in 2006.

ULUDAĞ İÇECEK

The activities of Uludağ İçecek, whose history dates back to 1912, were gathered under the umbrella of Uludağ Maden Suları Türk Limited, founded in 1931. The formula for Uludağ soda was created in 1932. Producing mineral water and soda from that date onward, Uludağ İçecek began opening up to foreign markets in the 1980s. Continuing its production investments, Uludağ İçecek introduced the first packaged lemonade to the market in 2007. 

SÜMERBANK

Sümerbank was founded on July 11, 1933, as a development model in line with the First Development Plan.

On August 12, 1932, Soviet experts came to Turkey to prepare an agreement on the construction of industrial factories and the granting of credit to Turkey. The Soviet experts’ recommendations focused on textiles, iron and steel, paper, cement, glass and chemical products.

It was decided, in cooperation with the Soviet Union, to establish a textile factory in Kayseri to process cotton produced domestically as raw material. Within this cooperation, agreement was reached for the Soviet Union to open an $8 million loan to Turkey, repayable over twenty years. On July 11, 1933, it became the bank responsible for industry, named Sümer Bank by Atatürk.

According to the First Five-Year Industrial Plan, 95 percent of total investments would be covered by Sümerbank and 5 percent by İşbankası. One quarter of the investments would come from the Soviets.

A large portion, 36 percent, of total investments that reached 100 million lira with additions was allocated to the weaving industry, and 23 percent to the iron industry.

Only two years after its establishment, in 1935, Sümerbank rose to first place among national banks with a participation share of 54.4 percent.

Within the framework of the first five-year development plan, it established seven factories: three cloth, one paper, one iron and steel, one artificial silk, and one merino carpet factory. In addition, in partnership with İşbankası, it opened the Malatya Cloth, Isparta rose oil, Keçiborlu sulfur mine and Zonguldak semi-coke factories.

As of March 1952, it had 17 institutions and 35 factories affiliated with them.

The factories were human-centered facilities, with worker housing, painting workshops, schools, workers’ cooperatives, guesthouses, baths, and summer camps in places such as Kuşadası.

The factory in Kayseri was included in the five-year development plan, and its foundation was laid on May 20, 1934, by then-Prime Minister İsmet İnönü.

It was designed by Russian architect Ivan Sergeevich Nikolaev. Its first large complex opened in Kayseri in September 1935. Thanks to the factory, Turkey became a producer and exporter of raw cotton. Dependence on cotton decreased significantly.

The Adana Cloth Factory and Housing Units were purchased by Sümerbank in 1946 and incorporated into its structure.

Sümerbank gained great renown as Turkey’s first modern textile organization. Iron and steel facilities, cement factories, paper and cellulose plants were also established within Sümerbank, which later ensured that they were separated from its structure and became independent organizations.

The institution provided clothing aid from Sümerbank to civil servants and students, while also giving scholarships to successful students of limited means, enabling them even to study abroad.

In 1987, a decision was made to privatize Sümerbank, and the bank was transferred to the Public Partnership Administration. In 1988, the Sümerbank Group of Companies was established. The holding’s banking unit was restructured under the name Sümerbank by a High Planning Council decision on October 23, 1995.

On October 24, 1995, it was privatized by being sold to Garipoğlu Group of Companies for $103.4 million.

The involvement of Hayyam Garipoğlu’s name in the Malki murder and the Türkbank scandal led to Sümerbank being taken from him.

Sümerbank was transferred to the TMSF on December 21, 1999. It was then sold to the Oyak Group on August 9, 2001. It was registered to Oyakbank A.Ş. on January 11, 2002.

The last of the factories belonging to Sümerbank was also shut down in 2002 on the grounds that it was making losses.

DHMİ

The establishment of the State Airports Authority (DHMİ), the institution responsible for operating airports within Turkey’s borders and regulating and supervising traffic in Turkish airspace, dates back to the 1930s.

While the institution has carried out its services under different names and statuses since 1933, it has continued its activities as a state economic enterprise since 1984. With the increasing number of airports in the 2000s, the institution’s field of activity also expanded. With newly opened airports in 2022, the number of active airports open to civil air traffic reached 57. The number of passengers in Turkey, which was below 1 million in the 1960s, exceeded 10 million in 1988, 50 million in 2005 and 100 million in 2010. 

THY

Turkish Airlines, Turkey’s national flag-carrier airline, was established by Law No. 2186 dated May 20, 1933. It began operations in August 1933 with five aircraft and a capacity of 23 seats.

Turkish Airlines, initially called the State Airlines Administration, remained under the Ministry of National Defense until 1935, then, under Law No. 2744 in 1935, was attached to the Ministry of Public Works, and under Law No. 3424 dated June 3, 1938, was transformed into the General Directorate of State Airlines and attached to the Ministry of Transport as an annex-budget administration.

The first international flight was made to Athens on February 12, 1947. 

In 1984, Turkish Airlines gained the status of a state economic enterprise with capital of 60 billion TL under Decree Law No. 233. 

It was offered to the public on December 12, 1990. With a new public offering in May 2006, its structure changed again and 50.88 percent of its shares began trading on Borsa İstanbul. While the remaining 49.12 percent stake belonged to the Republic of Turkey Privatization Administration, a decree published on February 24, 2017, decided to transfer the state-owned 49.12 percent stake to the Türkiye Wealth Fund.

The company, 50.88 percent of whose shares are publicly traded, also has a share of less than 0.01 percent under the authority of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance Privatization Administration.

On April 7, 2019, Turkish Airlines moved from Atatürk Airport, which it had used as its hub since its establishment, to İstanbul Airport. Cargo flights continued to be operated from Atatürk Airport for about three more years, then began to be carried out from İstanbul Airport on February 5, 2022.

In March 2023, THY Destek Hizmetleri Anonim Şirketi was established within Turkish Airlines to manage cleaning, security, facility management, financial affairs, flight and ground services, and operational and organizational work. In the same month, the airline took delivery of its 400th aircraft.

In addition, Turkish Airlines has a 50-50 partnership with Lufthansa in the Antalya-based SunExpress airline, a 49 percent stake in Sarajevo-based B&H Airlines and a 49.12 percent stake in Tirana-based Air Albania. It also owns the Ankara-based AnadoluJet airline brand.

ŞİŞECAM

In 1934, by a Council of Ministers decision, the task of establishing the Turkish glass industry was given by the Great Leader Atatürk to Türkiye İş Bankası.

Şişecam was founded on July 4, 1935, in İstanbul’s Paşabahçe district as an İş Bankası affiliate, at the request of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, to meet Turkey’s glass needs. The same year, the Paşabahçe Factory began production with 400 employees.

The Paşabahçe Factory was officially registered under the name “Türkiye Şişe ve Cam Fabrikaları Anonim Sosyetesi” to produce 25,000 bottles a day.

In 1936, at the end of its first year of operation, the Paşabahçe Factory was able to meet the country’s entire demand for bottles and glassware with 3,000 tons.

In 1957, Paşabahçe Ticaret Ltd. Şti. was established initially with two stores in İstanbul and one in Ankara to retail Paşabahçe products, ensure domestic price stability and popularize glassware culture.

In 1966, TACAM (Türk-Alman Cam Sanayii) Factory was established through Turkish-German (Schott) cooperation to produce neutral glass tubing and laboratory equipment. The first automotive glass production began at the Çayırova Processed Glass Factory.

In 1973, flat glass and bottle production began by Anadolu Cam Sanayii A.Ş.

A holding-company process was launched within Şişecam. While production and marketing and sales functions were separated, production entities gained “A.Ş.” status. Marketing and wholesale activities within Şişecam were gathered under Paşabahçe Ticaret Ltd. Şti.

In 1984, the Paşabahçe Kırklareli Factory began production to manufacture glass household goods from soda glass with automatic machines.

Caminter Şişecam Internationale Handelsgesellschaft mBH was established to act as a bridge in Şişecam’s international activities.

Cam Pazarlama A.Ş. gained the status of a “Foreign Trade Capital Company.”

In 1993, production at the Paşabahçe Handmade Factory was ended. The first modern automotive glass factory was established and the first laminated windshield was produced.

Tezsan Takım Tezgâhları Sanayii ve Ticaret A.Ş. and Tezsan Pazarlama A.Ş., which produced computer-aided, high-quality machine tools, joined the Şişecam Group.

Intercam Kaplamalı Camlar Sanayii ve Ticaret A.Ş. was established in partnership between Şişecam and the German company Interpane, one of the world’s largest processed-glass companies, to produce solar-control and climate-control coated glass.

In 1995, the first bulletproof automobile glass was produced.

In 2005, the first overseas prestige store of Paşabahçe Mağazaları A.Ş. opened in Moscow.

The Ruscam UFA factory opened in 2006 and the Bulgaria factory in 2008.

In 2019, Şişecam signed a cooperation protocol with SELSAN to develop solutions on product compositions and optimization, as well as the procurement of materials at standards to be used in defense industry projects.

With an investment exceeding 55 million euros, Şişecam commissioned its second flat-glass facility in Italy.

In 2020, the company succeeded in carrying out the largest merger transaction ever undertaken in Turkey’s capital markets. Work began on January 30, 2020, for Türkiye Şişe ve Cam Fabrikaları A.Ş. to merge by taking over its main subsidiaries Anadolu Cam Sanayii A.Ş., Denizli Cam Sanayii ve Ticaret A.Ş., Paşabahçe Cam Sanayii ve Ticaret A.Ş., Soda Sanayii A.Ş. and Trakya Cam Sanayii A.Ş. Registration procedures for the merger were completed on September 30, 2020, in accordance with the relevant legislation.

On October 5, 2020, after the merger was completed, the Şişecam Gong Ceremony was held at Borsa İstanbul.

In 2021, Şişecam made an investment in the United States that changed the structure of its partnership with the Ciner Group. With this investment, Şişecam became one of the world’s three largest soda producers.

SEKA

The foundations of SEKA, the pioneering and largest paper producer in the history of the Republic of Turkey, were laid in 1934. Under the First Five-Year Industrial Plan put into effect in 1934, it was decided to establish the İzmit Paper Factory.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the factory was held on August 14, 1934, with the participation of Prime Minister İsmet İnönü. The first paper was produced in 1936. Full-capacity production began at the factory as of 1940. Established on a large tract of land, the factory met a significant portion of Turkey’s paper needs and provided employment to a broad population. The institution increased production in the 1980s through investments and reached a production capacity of 1 million tons in those years. It was included in the scope of privatization in 1997. In 1998, it was decided to close the institution.

In 2004, taking into account the protocol signed between Kocaeli Municipality, the Selüloz-İş Union and the Privatization Administration, it was decided to transfer the enterprise to the municipality with all its machinery, equipment, land and employees, and transfer procedures were carried out as of 2005. 

ETİBANK

It was founded on June 14, 1935, under Atatürk’s directive, to operate and utilize Turkey’s underground resources, produce the minerals, industrial raw materials and energy needed by industry, and carry out all kinds of banking transactions through which the capital required for these works would be collected.

Iron mining and iron-steel production were transferred to Türkiye Demir Çelik İşletmeleri in 1955, and coal mining to Türkiye Kömür İşletmeleri Kurumu in 1957. Etibank was privatized on March 2, 1998. By a decision taken by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Board (BDDK) in 2000, Etibank’s partnership rights excluding dividends, along with its management and supervision, were transferred to the TMSF. The institution that continues its activities under the name Eti Maden plays a leading role in boron production in Turkey.

KELEBEK MOBİLYA

Kelebek, Turkey’s first panel furniture and kitchen manufacturer, was established in 1935 in İstanbul’s Haliç with the signature of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to produce plywood for the wings of the first domestic aircraft. Kelebek is Turkey’s first modular furniture brand.

The company began panel furniture production with the modular furniture factory it established in Düzce in 1978, opened its first retail outlet for end users in 1979 and reached 100 sales points nationwide within four years.

The company went public in 1990 and opened its first overseas store in Dortmund in 1991. 

Sixty-seven percent of the shares of Kelebek Mobilya, an Enka Holding affiliate, were purchased by the Göknar and Özbıyık families. By 2012, the company had changed hands again, and its shares were purchased by Doğtaş Mobilya.

As of the second quarter of 2023, the company, with 233 sales points in total — 216 domestic and 17 overseas — and 55,000 square meters of production area, continues its activities within Doğanlar Holding. 

KARDEMİR

The foundations of Kardemir, Turkey’s first heavy industry and integrated iron and steel plant, were laid on April 3, 1937, by then-Prime Minister İsmet İnönü as one of the national industrialization moves of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic. 

The first blast furnace was fired on September 9, 1939. And one day later, on September 10, 1939, the first Turkish iron was produced. 

From April 3, 1937, to May 13, 1955, it operated under Sümerbank as the Directorate of Iron and Steel Factories. 

By pioneering the country’s industrial breakthroughs, the project, manufacturing and assembly of numerous large industrial facilities were carried out by Kardemir. For this reason, it became known in Turkey as the “factory that establishes factories” and was referred to by this title.

Karabük Iron and Steel Factories separated from Sümerbank in 1955 and became an independent state enterprise under the name “General Directorate of Türkiye Demir Çelik İşletmeleri.”

Karabük Iron and Steel Factories, which incorporated the Divriği Iron Mines, an Etibank institution, on June 21, 1955, and operated as a general directorate, also trained experienced assembly personnel and pioneered the establishment of heavy industry, Erdemir and İsdemir in Turkey. 

It was privatized in 1995 and took the name Karabük Demir-Çelik Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ.

Shares of Kardemir, Turkey’s only national brand in railway rail production, began trading on the İMKB in 1998. 

All shares of the company, which is included in the BIST 30 index, are publicly traded.

FİSKOBİRLİK

The history of Fiskobirlik, the most established institution in hazelnuts, one of Turkey’s most strategic agricultural products, dates back to the 1930s. Before Fiskobirlik, İş Limited Company, founded in 1930, began hazelnut trading in 1931.

In 1936, the Hazelnut Station was established in Giresun. In his opening speech at the TBMM in 1937, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave the directive: “Within the coming year, unions concerning our other main products, especially hazelnuts, should also be established.” By 1938, the Union of Hazelnut Agricultural Sales Cooperatives (FİSKOBİRLİK) was established in Giresun.

In 1940, the Black Sea Region Hazelnut Exporters’ Association was established with its headquarters in Giresun. In 1965, the Hazelnut Station was renamed the Hazelnut Research Institute. In 1983, a law on hazelnuts was enacted. In 1996, the Hazelnut Promotion Group was established. Since its establishment, Fiskobirlik has been one of the most influential actors in the hazelnut market.

TMO

The Turkish Grain Board (TMO), an institution that has undertaken important duties as an actor in the grain market throughout the history of the Republic, was established in 1938.

In the early years of the Republic, as protectionist barriers rose in agricultural production under the effect of the global economic depression, Ziraat Bankası was assigned in 1932 to keep the domestic grain market balanced, and purchasing centers under the name “Wheat Purchasing Directorate” were opened in various parts of Turkey.

At the same time, the necessity of a new institution to perform this duty had emerged. Accordingly, TMO was established in 1938. The office was founded to prevent wheat prices from falling below normal for producers and rising against the consumer public, and during World War II it also took on the procurement and distribution of items such as gasoline, automobile tires, canned fried meat, margarine and even coffee. TMO continued its investments in storage throughout the history of the Republic. Its warehouse capacity, around 100,000 tons when it was founded, rose to 4 million tons in the Republic’s 100th year.  

ÇUKOBİRLİK

Çukobirlik, founded in 1940 in Çukurova, one of Turkey’s most important agricultural production areas, set out for the production of cotton, one of the strategic products. The union had the status of a cooperative union formed by the Adana, Ceyhan and Tarsus Agricultural Sales Cooperatives coming together with 275 partners.

Çukobirlik was restructured according to the law that entered into force in 1985. The Peanut Agricultural Sales Cooperatives Union, headquartered in Mersin and known briefly as “Yerfiskobirlik,” was merged with Çukobirlik in 1989. With peanuts and soybeans added to its field of activity alongside seed cotton, the institution took the title “Çukurova Cotton, Peanut and Oilseeds Agricultural Sales Cooperatives Union.”

On June 16, 2000, it gained an autonomous structure under the new Law No. 4572 on Agricultural Sales Cooperatives and Unions, published in the Official Gazette and entering into force. Today Çukobirlik serves more than 36,000 producer partners with 36 cooperatives in an area covering 10 provinces.

PETROL OFİSİ

Petrol Ofisi was established on February 18, 1941, as a state economic enterprise for the import, storage, refining and distribution of petroleum products. The company was under the same umbrella as TÜPRAŞ and BOTAŞ until 1983, after which it became a joint-stock company. In 1990, it was included in the scope of privatization. On July 24, 2000, the company was privatized, and in the first stage 51 percent of its shares were transferred to İŞ-Doğan Petrol Yatırımları A.Ş. Doğan Holding took over Türkiye İş Bankası shares in August 2005. In 2010, the company was transferred to Austria’s OMV Group. In 2017, it was taken over by the Swiss company Vitol. 

ECZACIBAŞI

In 1942, Nejat Eczacıbaşı established a pharmaceutical laboratory. The first pharmaceutical factory was established in 1952. In 1973, the two institutions were merged under one roof and structured as Eczacıbaşı Holding.

The company operates in pharmaceuticals for human health, veterinary medicines, tissue paper, cologne, skin care, baby care, personal care, home care and out-of-home cleaning products.

Its brands include Artema, Defans, Detan, Egos, Essence, Frosch, OK, Selin, Servis, Selpak, Silen, Solo, Uni Baby, Uni Care, Uni Wipes, VitrA, VitrA Fix and VitrA Therm.

ÜLKER

The foundations of Yıldız Holding, which includes Ülker, were laid in 1944 by brothers Sabri Ülker and Asım Ülker at Eminönü Nohutçu Han. 

Ülker, associated only with biscuits in its early years, began offering consumers products in different areas from 1970 onward, including chocolate, chocolate products and wafers, from 1990 onward cakes, milk and oil, and in the 2000s kitchen products and beverages.

The group established Yıldız Holding in 1989. Ülker continued its activities as a company within Yıldız Holding.

Godiva, the world’s leading premium chocolate and chocolate products brand since its establishment, joined Yıldız Holding, which includes Ülker, at the end of 2007.

Yıldız Holding, which also includes Ülker, acquired United Biscuits, the world’s sixth-largest biscuit producer, on November 3, 2014. With this transaction, Yıldız Holding rose to become the world’s No. 3 biscuit company.

Today Ülker continues its production activities with 10 factories in four countries: Turkey, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The group then established Pladis Global in January 2016, a British confectionery and snack food company headquartered in London as a subsidiary of Yıldız Holding, encompassing United Biscuits, Ülker, Godiva Chocolatier and DeMet’s Candy Company. 

Yapı Kredi

It was founded in İstanbul in 1944 by Kazım Taşkent as Turkey’s first privately capitalized bank.

In 1964, the first collective agreement in banking was signed. The bank joined Çukurova Holding in 1980.

In 1988, the country’s first individual credit card was issued. A year later, the first automobile loan was granted. 

In 2005, because of the debts of its parent Çukurova Holding to the TMSF, 51 percent of its shares were sold by the holding to Koç Financial Services within Koç Holding. 

In 2006, the new Yapı Kredi formed by the merger of Koçbank, the country’s eighth-largest bank (an affiliate of Koç Financial Services, a 50-50 partnership between Koç Holding and Unicredit), and Yapı Kredi, the seventh-largest bank, became the fourth-largest private bank.

Yapı ve Kredi Bankası has 11 subsidiaries operating in four different areas.

Today the bank serves nationwide with 789 branches.

SSK

The Republic of Turkey Social Insurance Institution first gained official status when the Workers’ Insurance Institution Law No. 4792 was submitted to the TBMM as a draft on June 12, 1945, and was established on January 1, 1946, under the name Workers’ Insurance Institution. 

The Workers’ Insurance Institution was held responsible for fulfilling the provisions listed in Article 4 of Law No. 4772 in cases of work accident, occupational disease and maternity, and it was stated that the costs of activities in these areas, which it was obliged to perform as assistance, would be covered by insurance premiums accumulated on behalf of workers.

Another development regarding the insurance of employees in Turkey was the establishment of the Pension Fund under Law No. 5434, which entered into force in January 1949, providing civil servants with security in the field of social security. As a result of examinations carried out to eliminate problems in the implementation of the Retirement Law, it was deemed appropriate to merge the Workers’ Insurance Institution, which operated as a separate institution, with the Pension Fund. 

With the principle of the “social state” included in the 1961 Constitution, the scope and field of duty of the Workers’ Insurance Institution were expanded, and in 1964 the institution’s name was changed to the Social Insurance Institution.

The Social Insurance Institution, established under the Ministry of Labor, was transferred on December 18, 1974, to the Ministry of Social Security and then, by Law No. 184, to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. With Law No. 2022 dated July 10, 1976, the old-age pension for those aged 65 was introduced. Another development that expanded the institution’s scope was the adoption in 1983 of Law No. 2925 on Social Insurance for Agricultural Workers and Law No. 2926 on Social Insurance for Self-Employed Agricultural Workers. 

In addition, services began to be provided to needy people under the Social Services and Child Protection Law No. 2828 of 1983; in-kind and cash assistance to poor people under the Social Assistance and Solidarity Encouragement Fund No. 3294 of 1986; and health services to poor citizens under the Green Card Law No. 3816 of 1992. 

Finally, policies within the framework of the Social Security Institution Law No. 5502 dated May 16, 2006, and the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510 dated May 31, 2006, continued to be carried out by merging Social Insurance, Bağ-Kur and the Pension Fund under a single roof.

GARANTİ 

Garanti Bankası, founded in Ankara in 1946, has operated since 2010 with BBVA as its main shareholder. Since June 2019, the bank has continued its activities under the “Garanti BBVA” brand.

Operating in all business lines of the banking sector, including corporate, commercial, SME, retail, private and investment banking and payment systems, Garanti BBVA serves as an integrated financial services group with international subsidiaries in the Netherlands and Romania, as well as financial subsidiaries in individual pension and life insurance, leasing, factoring, investment and portfolio management.

Today the bank continues its activities in the country with 817 branches.

TARİŞ

The formation of the Fig, Raisin, Cotton and Oilseeds Agricultural Sales Cooperatives Unions, known briefly as Tariş, which began in the first half of the 1910s, started to take shape as fig producers organized against monopolized moneylenders.

Aegean fig producers laid the foundation of an agricultural sales cooperative that would cover the Aegean region as a result of congresses they held in Germencik on January 29, 1912, and in Aydın on February 4, 1912.

At the end of 1913, Nazmi Topçuoğlu, Kazım Nuri Çörüş, Ahmet Sarı and those supporting them put their decision into practice on August 21, 1915, with the support of Milli Aydın Bankası, under the name “Cooperative Aydın Fig Producers Joint-Stock Company.” 

Law No. 2834 enacted on October 9, 1935, paved the way for the establishment of “Agricultural Sales Cooperatives” and their unions.

The union, which took the name “İzmir Fig, Raisin, Cotton and Olive Oil Agricultural Sales Cooperatives Unions” in 1949, became in 1987 the current Tariş, Fig, Raisin, Cotton, Olive and Olive Oil Agricultural Sales Cooperatives Unions, inspired by Türkiye İş Bankası and Tarım Bankası, which had supported its establishment. Following a title change by the Cotton Union in 2005, it gained its final title: “Tariş Fig, Raisin, Cotton and Oilseeds Agricultural Sales Cooperatives Unions.”

Today Tariş operates as a well-known cooperative in the Aegean region, headquartered in İzmir, with more than 75,000 producer partners and 73 member organizations.

MKE

While the roots of Turkey’s defense industry date back to before the Republic, modern production, which began on different scales in line with the needs of the War of Independence, gradually acquired an institutional structure. The Ottoman Empire’s General Directorate of Military Manufacturing took part in the national independence movement during the Turkish War of Independence from 1921 onward with some benches, equipment, materials and masters smuggled out of İstanbul after the occupation of the Empire.

The institution was reorganized in 1921 under the name General Directorate of Military Factories. In 1921-1924, Light Weapons and Artillery Repair Workshops, Cartridge and Carpentry Factories were established in Ankara; in 1928, the Brass Factory and Electrical Machinery Factory in Kırıkkale; and in 1929, the Ammunition Factory in Kırıkkale.

While other factory establishment work continued, the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation was established by a legal regulation in 1950. MKE, which had been under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the relevant ministry since 1950, was made a related institution of the Ministry of National Defense (MSB) in 2000. 

TOBB

The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, along with chambers and commodity exchanges, was established by Law No. 5590, published in the Official Gazette No. 7457 dated March 15, 1950.

The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey is defined as a professional umbrella organization with public institution status and legal personality, established to ensure unity and solidarity among chambers and exchanges, to ensure the development of the profession in accordance with general interests, to facilitate the professional activities of chamber and exchange members, to make honesty and trust prevail in their relations with each other and with the public, to preserve professional discipline and ethics, to carry out the necessary work for the country’s development and the economy’s progress, and to perform the services specified in this law. 

TOBB is the professional umbrella organization and legal representative of the private sector in Turkey. TOBB is the umbrella organization of 365 chambers and exchanges spread across 81 provinces and 160 districts (chambers of commerce, chambers of industry, chambers of commerce and industry, chambers of shipping and commodity exchanges). 

The institution known briefly as TOBB is headquartered in Ankara.

ANADOLU EFES

Anadolu Group was founded in the early 1950s by the Özilhan and Yazıcı families. Showing rapid and sustainable growth since its establishment, Anadolu Group became a holding company in 1969.

Anadolu Efes is a company affiliated with Anadolu Group that also produces Efes Pilsen beers. The company produces and markets beer, malt and non-alcoholic beverages across a wide geography consisting of Turkey, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. 

Anadolu Efes, which began operations in Turkey in 1969, has been the market leader since the 1980s. From the 1990s onward, the company expanded its activities abroad. 

Anadolu Efes strengthened its power in foreign markets by entering into a strategic partnership with SABMiller. Under an agreement signed in 2012, Anadolu Efes took over SABMiller’s operations in Russia and Ukraine and became Russia’s second-largest beer producer.

Anadolu Efes now continues its activities as a global company that exports three quarters of its production. By sales volume, it is Europe’s sixth-largest and the world’s 11th-largest beer producer. Exporting products to more than 80 countries, Anadolu Efes operates with 18 breweries in total — five in Turkey, eight in Russia, two in Kazakhstan and one each in Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia — seven malt plants and one hops processing facility.

TÜRK-İŞ

The Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions, known briefly as Türk-İş, was founded in 1952. Headquartered in Ankara and Turkey’s largest labor confederation, Türk-İş represents 1,312,986 workers organized in 34 member unions under its umbrella.

GÜBRETAŞ

On November 6, 1952, by a Council of Ministers decision during Prime Minister Adnan Menderes’s term, “Gübre Fabrikaları Türk Anonim Şirketi” (GÜBRETAŞ) was established to increase productivity in national agriculture through the use of chemical fertilizers.

Founded under the leadership of Ziraat Bankası in partnership with Zirai Donatım Kurumu, Şeker Fabrikaları, Sümerbank, Etibank, Makine Kimya Endüstrisi and Fertilizer Corporation of America A.G., GÜBRETAŞ officially began operations in 1953.

In 1954, Turkey’s first chemical fertilizer factory was established by GÜBRETAŞ in İskenderun Sarıseki. NSP (Normal Süper Phosphate) fertilizer was produced at the 100,000-ton-capacity factory and offered to farmers.

In 1961, a second factory, again with a production capacity of 100,000 tons per year, began operating in Kocaeli Yarımca. Three years later, in 1964, a pier was built at the Yarımca factory, accelerating the unloading of raw materials supplied from abroad and product shipments.

İSO

From the 1950s onward, with labor-intensive and small-scale manufacturing investments in İstanbul, a new generation emerged, formed by large private investment companies. After the Democrat Party came to power, the Turkish business and industrial world began operating in a freer market following new laws and the removal of many restrictions. 

The Turkish industrial world entering a new era needed to be represented as a single body in business, politics and similar fields.

To meet this need, with the signed request of 750 industrialists, the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce and Industry was split in 1952 and the İstanbul Chamber of Industry was established.

At the first assembly meeting held on May 30, 1952, the first-term assembly began its activities under the chairmanship of Kazım Arın and the vice chairmanship of Sırrı Enver Batur.

In the same period, Hüsnü Yaman was elected chairman of the board of directors, while Cahit Evrenos and Hasan Derman were elected vice chairmen.

İSO first began its activities at 4. Vakıf Han and moved a few years after its establishment to Kılavuz Han in Sirkeci. Then, in 1958, it purchased Kruger Han, completely restored it and moved its headquarters to this building in 1963. 

The İstanbul Chamber of Industry, which moved to Odakule in 1976 and operated in that building until 2017, now continues its activities at its headquarters in Tepebaşı.

DSİ

The General Directorate of DSİ was founded in 1953 and organized in 1954. As a public institution, it continues its activities on dam works, the common point of the four purposes assigned to it — flood protection, expanding irrigated agriculture, producing hydroelectric energy and supplying drinking water to major cities as well as settlements with municipal organizations — so that it can effectively fulfill these aims. 

The General Directorate of DSİ is also an institution that builds dams in Turkey. The institution, which is the authority for allocating Turkey’s water resources for various uses, has carried out its services under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry since July 15, 2018.

DEMİRDÖKÜM

Demirdöküm, founded in 1954, joined the Koç Group in 1955. The company began producing cast radiators and enamel cookware in 1958 and continued production through various licensing agreements with German companies. The company established production facilities in İstanbul and in later periods shifted its production to areas outside İstanbul.

In 1979, panel radiators and water heaters were produced at the Eskişehir Bozüyük facility, while a water-heater facility in Bolu was taken over in 1985. The İnegöl facilities were officially opened in 1988. Demirdöküm, which continued modernization investments and production in different product ranges in the 1990s, also continued its overseas activities. The company’s majority shares were transferred to Vaillant Group in 2007. 

MİGROS

Migros, Turkey’s pioneering brand in modern food retailing, set out in 1954 with the İstanbul Municipality’s decision to establish an organization similar to Swiss Migros. From that date, Migros sales trucks began traveling district by district in İstanbul.

In 1975, the Koç Group, at Vehbi Koç’s request, took over the majority shares of Migros, and a store-opening process began across Turkey, starting from İstanbul. Migros, which went public in 1991, also began large-store retailing during this period. Migros, which created the first discount brand Şok, took steps in areas such as private-label products and shopping by credit card. 

VAKIFBANK

VakıfBank, founded in 1954 to make the best use of foundation resources in line with the needs of economic development, offers modern banking products and services in retail and private banking as well as corporate, commercial, SME and agricultural banking. 

VakıfBank provides services to individual and corporate customers through 938 branches across the country, as well as alternative distribution channels supported by advanced technology. 

The bank carries out its operations through domestic and foreign branches, 11 subsidiaries and 15 affiliates.

Of its subsidiaries and affiliates, 12 are in the financial sector, including four in banking and eight other financial affiliates; 14 are outside the financial sector, including one in energy, two in tourism, one in manufacturing and 10 in other commercial enterprises.

TPAO

Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı (TPAO) was established in 1954 to carry out hydrocarbon exploration, drilling, production, refinery and marketing activities on behalf of the public. 

On the same day the Petroleum Law was adopted, Türkiye Petrolleri, with capital of 150,000 lira under Law No. 6327, achieved its first major success with the Germik Field discovered in 1958.

Following the discovery of the Germik Field, Türkiye Petrolleri’s first Regional Directorate was established in Batman in 1959. İluh, then a village of 13 households in Siirt province, was introduced to many innovations in culture, art, sports and education thanks to the dynamism brought by the Batman Regional Directorate, and has today become the city of Batman with a population of about 550,000.

The first Türkiye Petrolleri fuel station, among nearly 400 stations operating across the country, was opened in Ankara Balgat in 1963.

Each of the fuel stations launched with the slogan “National Petroleum” was designed with different architecture and was integrated with additional facilities such as cafeterias, markets and restaurants, which could be considered luxurious for many stations under the conditions of the day.

By 1960, İstanbul Petroleum Refinery A.Ş. (İPRAŞ), established jointly with the American company Caltex to process crude oil produced and turn it into petroleum derivatives, was put into operation.

Due to increasing oil production in the Batman Region, the Batman Refinery became insufficient, and transporting the extracted oil by tankers to İskenderun and from there by ships to İPRAŞ brought major problems. 

The Batman-Dörtyol Oil Pipeline, with a carrying capacity of 3.5 million tons, whose construction began in 1963 and which opened on January 4, 1967, was completed through the outstanding efforts of Turkish engineers and workers despite foreign companies’ reports that it “could not be built.”

Thanks to the pipeline, which generated annual earnings of 200 million TL in the 1960s, oil produced in Southeastern Anatolia was transported in the most economical way to İskenderun and from there to the İzmir and İzmit refineries, creating great added value for the national economy.

In 1967, it was time to establish a refinery that would process crude oil and produce gasoline, gas, diesel, jet fuel, plastics and much more needed by the rapidly growing country. The İzmir Refinery was put into operation on 3,000 dönüms in İzmir Aliağa, with a $24.5 million loan from the USSR and the purchase of all engineering services and machinery equipment required for the facility.

Until 1983, it operated as an integrated oil company in many areas of the sector such as exploration, production, refining, marketing and transportation; after legal regulations made in 1983, it continues today as an oil company that carries out only hydrocarbon exploration and production projects.

Türkiye Petrolleri conducts hydrocarbon exploration, drilling, production and distribution activities at six different locations in Turkey and abroad.

In addition to its main activity of oil exploration and production, it continues work in deep-sea exploration, unconventional resources, natural gas storage and pipeline transportation.

TPAO pioneered the establishment of 19 companies, including Tüpraş, Botaş, Petkim and Petrol Ofisi.

ARÇELİK-BEKO

Arçelik was founded in Sütlüce in 1955 by Vehbi Koç and Lütfi Doruk. In the Turkish white goods sector, washing machines were produced for the first time in 1959, refrigerators in 1960 and dishwashers in 1990. It moved to the Çayırova facilities in 1968, and its product range was expanded in the 1970s and 1980s with the opening of the Eskişehir Refrigerator plant in 1975, the İzmir Vacuum Cleaner plant in 1979 and the Ankara Dishwasher plant in 1993.

1999 was a year of growth and restructuring. In June, Ardem, which produced cooking appliances, and in December of the same year Türk Elektrik Endüstrisi A.Ş. and Atılım ve Gelişim Pazarlama A.Ş. were merged under Arçelik A.Ş. as a single legal entity. 

Starting in January 2001, domestic marketing and sales of Beko-branded products carried out by Beko Ticaret began to be conducted by Arçelik A.Ş.

With the new organizational model ensuring single-handed management of production and sales/marketing activities, a structure was created that allowed coordinated execution of activities and increased efficiency.

Arçelik A.Ş. has a product range that appeals to all consumer segments in local and international markets with the Arçelik, Beko, Altus, Elektra Bregenz, Blomberg, Arctic, Leisure, Flavel and Tirolia brands.

Arçelik A.Ş., whose total patent applications have reached the 300s, accounts for 10 percent of all patent applications made in Turkey since 1996.

In 2004, in the European Commission’s competition on energy efficiency, it won the grand prize among 900 participants with a refrigerator that consumed 58 percent less energy than a standard A energy class model.

By 2008, the trade name of Beko Elektronik A.Ş. had been changed to Grundig Elektronik A.Ş., and a year later the merger of Arçelik A.Ş. and Grundig Elektronik A.Ş. was completed.

In July 2011, Arçelik A.Ş. signed an agreement to purchase South Africa’s white goods manufacturer Defy Appliances Limited (“Defy”) from Franke Holding AG.

As of 2020, it has 18 production facilities in seven countries (Turkey, Romania, Russia, China, South Africa, Thailand and Pakistan) and a product and service network in more than 145 countries with 11 brands (Arçelik, Beko, Grundig, Blomberg, Elektrabregenz, Arctic, Leisure, Flavel, Defy, Altus and Dawlance).

Beko: from canned food to white goods

In the 1950s, when Turkey was only beginning to industrialize, Vehbi Koç, founder of Koç Holding, was seeking a product that would earn foreign currency for Turkey. Within the conditions of the country at that time, he formed a partnership with Bejerano, who had experience in this field, for an investment in a tomato paste and canned food factory. The company founded in 1954 was registered as Beko, formed from the first two letters of Bejerano and Koç. However, because of the country’s circumstances, the company could not become operational.

In those years, when the opportunity arose to establish sales and dealership for General Electric light bulbs, the canned food company’s name was changed to Beko Ticaret A.Ş. Thus Vehbi Koç, who established the dealership system in Anatolia for the first time, delivered Arçelik products to consumers’ homes through this system.

Beko Ticaret, which transferred Arçelik distributorship to Atılım in 1977, began operating in Turkey’s white goods sector under the Beko brand from 1983.

As Koç Holding Durable Consumer Goods Group turned to overseas activities from the 1990s onward, Beko was designated as an export brand.

By 2000, as a result of the restructuring of Koç Holding Durable Consumer Goods Group, Beko left Beko Ticaret A.Ş. and came under the umbrella of Arçelik A.Ş. together with the Arçelik brand.

Beko, the first brand to sell abroad under its own name, set out with the goal of becoming a “World Brand.” Having achieved its first success in the Turkish market, Beko carried this success abroad and today has introduced its brand to millions of people in more than 100 countries.

TÜRK TRAKTÖR

It began tractor production in 1955 by closing the aircraft production and maintenance factory founded by Atatürk in Gazi and assembling tractors made by Minneapolis-Moline in its place.

It was established under a preliminary protocol signed in 1954 between the American Minneapolis-Moline company and MKE, TZDK, Ziraat Bankası, Tariş and Çukobirlik. The following year, the first domestic tractor was produced and mass production began. However, production fell during the 1958 foreign-exchange crisis.

An agreement was signed with FIAT in 1963. During the 1973 Oil Crisis, tractor supply was not increased.

It made its first export to Pakistan in 1979.

On September 12, 1992, all public shares were transferred to the Koç Group.

In 1998, a partnership was formed with New Holland. In October 2010, both companies equalized their shares at 37.5 percent each, and the remaining shares are publicly traded.

There is a partnership between Koç Holding and CNH, one of the world’s largest tractor and agricultural equipment manufacturers. In 2004, 24.93 percent of its shares were offered to the public on BİST.

In March 2011, it commissioned its second assembly facility in Adapazarı in cooperation with Otokar, and on February 16, 2012, it produced the 10,000th TT model on this assembly line, Turkey’s second-largest tractor factory.

ODTÜ

Middle East Technical University was founded as a state university in Ankara on November 15, 1956. At the time of its establishment, it began education under the name “Middle East Institute of High Technology.”

With the entry into force in August 1960 of Law No. 43, which ended the Board of Trustees’ term, Prof. W.R. Woolrich, appointed advisory rector in March 1959, was soon dismissed and Prof. Dr. Turhan Feyzioğlu was appointed as ODTÜ’s first Turkish rector. Thus, at the opening ceremony of the university, which adapted to Turkey’s legal system, Rector Feyzioğlu emphasized its Turkish university identity by saying, “Middle East Technical University is entirely a Turkish university.”

During this period, ODTÜ’s internal correspondence began to be conducted in Turkish and regulations were issued for the first time. 

The university gave its first graduates in June 1960. During this period, a total of 30 people graduated, 11 from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and 19 from the Department of Architecture, and the first top-ranking student of the university was given a plaque along with a 1,000-lira award.

In 1967, at ODTÜ, where particular emphasis was placed on scientific projects, a total of 219 projects were carried out during the year. With projects conducted in this period, ODTÜ gained the title of the university receiving the most awards from TÜBİTAK.

The university became the first in Turkey to establish a central computer system in 1966. In 1968, it opened an archaeology museum displaying excavation finds from within the campus, and it carried out many innovations such as launching the technopark initiative in Turkey in 1987 and establishing Turkey’s first internet connection in 1993. Turkey’s internet country code domain, .tr, has been issued since 1991 by nic.tr, an institution managed by ODTÜ. The policies and procedures for .tr domain-name transactions were created and implemented between 1991 and 1998 by the ODTÜ Computer Center.

ODTÜ continues its activities with an academic approach that encourages quality undergraduate and graduate education, academic studies, projects, research and development activities, with the vision of being “a pioneering university at the international level that transforms its region and the world.” The language of instruction at ODTÜ has been English since its establishment.

KALE GRUBU

The foundation of Turkey’s first ceramics factory, established by İbrahim Bodur, one of the country’s first industrialists, was laid on July 27, 1957, by then-Prime Minister Adnan Menderes.

Çanakkale Seramik, the first industrial facility established in Çan district of Çanakkale outside major cities with relatively better infrastructure, became a facility that offered job opportunities across generations to the people of Çan, whose population was around 1,000 at the time.

Çanakkale Seramik Fabrikaları Limited Şirketi, transformed on December 31, 1958, into Çanakkale Seramik Fabrikaları A.Ş. with the participation of family members, employees, dealers and local people, was Turkey’s first publicly held company. By 1960, Çanakkale Seramik, which produced tiles for the first time in Turkey with machinery and equipment imported from Czechoslovakia, was founded in the same years as the beginning of the planned industrial period and the establishment of the Ministry of Industry in Turkey.

Çanakkale Seramik Fabrikaları A.Ş., which made Turkey’s first ceramics export in 1962, became one of the country’s first exporters earning foreign currency from industrial products.

In 1972, alongside Çanakkale Seramik Fabrikaları A.Ş., Turkey’s first floor-tile producer, Kalebodur Seramik Sanayi A.Ş., was established.

FORD OTOSAN

Ford Otosan was founded by Vehbi Koç in Acıbadem, Üsküdar, in 1959.

Ford Otosan was established in 1997 with the equalization of Koç Holding and Ford shares. Otosan, which produced Anadol-brand vehicles between 1966 and 1984, later produced Ford’s Taunus, Escort, Transit, Connect and Courier models.

Within Ford Otosan, more than 10,000 people work in total at the İhsaniye Center, Gölcük, Yeniköy Center, Başiskele, Kocaeli and İnönü, Eskişehir factories, the Cevizli, Kartal Spare Parts Center and the Akpınar, Sancaktepe R&D Center.

In addition to vehicle exports, Ford Otosan made engineering exports exceeding $320 million. 

As of 2014, its research and development center in Sancaktepe entered service. 

Ford Otosan produces as Ford’s global design and engineering research center for heavy commercial vehicles and as a support center for light commercial vehicles.

Today it produces Transit, Custom, Connect, Courier light and medium commercial vehicles, Cargo and F-MAX heavy commercial vehicles, and Ecotorq and Duratorq diesel engines for world markets. With a protocol signed in March 2021, it was decided that the company would invest 2 billion euros in its Kocaeli factory over 10 years.

In 2021, the company produced Turkey’s first and only domestic transmission.

DPT

The concepts of plan and planning were first encountered in Karl Marx’s Das Kapital (1867-1894), in which Marx argued that the organizing principle of the economy should not be markets in the economic sense but planning. This understanding came onto the agenda of the world economic system with World War II. 

In Turkey, with this understanding, the First and Second Five-Year Industrial Plans were prepared in the early years of the Republic to develop industry. 

The State Planning Organization (DPT) was established on October 5, 1960. It advised the government in determining the state’s economic, social and cultural objectives. It prepared development plans and annual plans to achieve the objectives set by the government.

In the organization’s first period, names such as Yalçın Küçük, Hikmet Çetin and Güngör Uras served there; after Turgut Özal was appointed undersecretary, most of the staff changed and figures such as Yusuf Bozkurt Özal, Nevzat Yalçıntaş, Beşir Atalay, Yaşar Yakış, Hasan Celal Güzel and Temel Karamollaoğlu were appointed to various positions at DPT.

The organization was reorganized as the Ministry of Development in 2011.

In 2018, the Ministry of Development and the General Directorate of Budget and Fiscal Control of the Ministry of Finance were merged to create the Presidency of Strategy and Budget within the Presidency.

AYGAZ

Aygaz, founded in 1961, operates as an integrated LPG company carrying out processes including the procurement, storage and filling of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and the production and sale of LPG-powered devices. 

Aygaz, the first publicly traded company operating in the LPG sector, has carried out its maritime transport activities with its own vessels since 1967.

The fleet, consisting of three vessels named Beykoz, Beylerbeyi and Kuzguncuk, is managed by Anadoluhisarı Tankercilik A.Ş., a wholly owned subsidiary of Aygaz. In addition to import-export activities, the vessels meet a significant portion of LPG supply between Aygaz’s marine terminals.

Aygaz, which carries out 51 percent of Turkey’s LPG imports, also runs the country’s largest LPG maritime logistics operation.

Aygaz produces products such as cylinders, valves, small bulk tanks and regulators used in the domestic market at its facility in Gebze Organized Industrial Zone, which has 52,000 square meters of open area and 25,000 square meters of closed area.

Today Aygaz is the first and only publicly traded company operating in the LPG sector.

OYAK

OYAK was established on March 1, 1961, with the participation of about 65,000 permanent members, to create additional social security against the social and physical risks its members might face.

OYAK is the most successful example of Turkey’s complementary occupational pension system.

OYAK is a complementary occupational pension fund, examples of which are common in developed economies, established to provide its members with additional benefits in retirement, death and disability. Compared with countries successful in complementary occupational pension funds such as the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, it is at the same level in terms of the contributions and services it offers its members.

OYAK, with the highest number of members in Turkey and the contributions and services it provides to its members, sets an example for the development of other complementary occupational pension funds in Turkey and provides additional contributions to its members independently of the Social Security Institution.

OYAK is subject to Law No. 205.

OYAK is an organization with legal personality, financially and administratively autonomous and subject to private-law provisions under Law No. 205.

OYAK’s members;

Consist of members of the Turkish Armed Forces, the Gendarmerie General Command, the Coast Guard Command and employees who join voluntarily, including civilians as specified in the law.

OYAK manages member savings with the objective of profitability and efficiency.

OYAK manages all savings of its members according to the principles of profitability, efficiency and institutional investment.

OYAK is an institution that pays direct and indirect taxes. Together with its group companies, the institution paid 54.2 billion TL in taxes in 2022.

OYAK and OYAK Group Companies consist of more than 140 group companies operating in every region of Turkey and in 25 countries abroad in the sectors of mining and metallurgy, cement-concrete-paper, automotive logistics, finance, chemicals, food-agriculture-livestock, construction and energy.

ERDEMİR

Erdemir’s start of production was one of the turning points for Turkey, which was trying to develop its economy in line with the development plan. In Turkey, where serious industrial moves were launched in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the need for flat steel was increasing so that existing industry could develop and new industrial branches could begin production; it did not seem possible to meet this need entirely through imports. At this point, one of the most important strategic steps for the development of the Turkish economy and industry was taken, and Erdemir, one of Turkey’s most valuable industrial assets, was established by a special law in 1960 to produce in Turkey the flat steel needed by domestic industry. Erdemir’s establishment was registered on May 11, 1960. Construction work began in 1961, and Erdemir began operations in Zonguldak’s Ereğli district in 1965 with a final-product capacity of about 400,000 tons.

Over the years, Erdemir undertook Turkey’s largest investment projects in line with the increasing needs of Turkish industry, increasing its production capacity and product diversity. Developing its capacity and portfolio with investments, Erdemir continued to grow with companies it established and acquired.

The year 2006 was a turning point for Erdemir and its subsidiaries. Erdemir and its subsidiaries, which joined OYAK, continued their strong growth with OYAK’s financial strength and experience.

In the 58th year of its commissioning, Erdemir continues to produce for the future of Turkey and Karadeniz Ereğli, supplies raw materials to countless sectors and moves confidently toward the future with sustainable growth steps.

Erdemir, one of OYAK’s mining and metallurgy companies, today has a final-product capacity of about 5 million tons and focuses on the manufacture and efficiency of high value-added, innovative products. Erdemir maintains its strength in regional and global markets with products it develops and improves according to demand at its R&D center.

Erdemir, Turkey’s first and pioneering producer in the flat steel sector, supplies products to many sectors such as automotive, white goods, pipe profile, rolling, general manufacturing, electrical and electronics, machinery, energy, heating equipment, shipbuilding, defense, packaging and renewable energy, and is among Turkey’s most broadly held publicly traded companies.

Erdemir, among the top five of Turkey’s 500 largest industrial enterprises in 2022, has been among the indispensable values of the region where it has operated since its establishment. Today Erdemir directly employs more than 5,000 people in Ereğli alone and creates social benefit for the region and Turkey through the projects it carries out.

TİSK

The Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations was founded on December 20, 1962. TİSK operates as the only umbrella organization authorized to represent Turkish employers in the field of industrial relations at home and abroad. Headquartered in Ankara, TİSK has 21 member employer unions operating in various sectors of the economy and industry, including public services.

Approximately 2 million employees are employed at around 10,000 workplaces registered to member employers.

SEK

The Milk Industry Institution was established in 1963 under the Ministry of Agriculture, with all of its capital provided by the state, as an economic state enterprise subject to private-law provisions, to develop the dairy industry, to serve as an example and instructor for the private sector in this field, to establish necessary milk processing facilities in dairy regions and to undertake initiatives related to agricultural cooperatives.

The Milk Industry Institution, which continued its activities as a state economic enterprise from 1968 and had milk and dairy products factories in Adana, İstanbul, İzmir and Kars, was privatized in September 1995. SEK’s İstanbul operation was purchased by a group of 164 people consisting of small and medium-sized industrialists and food wholesalers operating in the same sector. 

Koç Holding purchased 68 percent of SEK shares in 1997.

The institution was sold by the Koç Group to the Çallı Group in January 2021.

BMC

BMC was founded in İzmir in 1964. In its early years it produced Austin and Morris brand commercial vehicles. From 1966, it began producing trucks, pickup trucks, tractors and engines. BMC’s domestic capital ratio, initially 74 percent, rose in 1989 to make it Turkey’s only commercial vehicle manufacturer with 100 percent domestic capital.

In 1976, BMC produced Turkey’s first diesel engine and carried out the diesel adaptation of gasoline engines. In addition to motor vehicles, it began producing industrial engines, generators, marine engines and military-purpose products. Also in these years, it introduced the Leyland 30 pickup truck, the first light commercial vehicle of the Leyland series. 

BMC, which formed a partnership with Volvo Truck Corporation in 1983, produced the Yavuz series, Turkey’s first turbo-engine commercial vehicles. With Cummins Engine Company, with which it signed an agreement in 1985, it began producing Fatih series trucks with Cummins engines.

In 1989, all shares of the company were purchased by Çukurova Holding. In 1990, it signed a cooperation agreement with the famous Italian design firm Pininfarina, and after six years of work and an investment exceeding $120 million, it introduced the Professional, whose industrial and commercial property belonged to BMC, in June 1996.

BMC is Turkey’s only and one of the world’s four manufacturers producing special vehicles in all classes of cargo and passenger transport from 2.8 tons to 40 tons.

KÜTAHYA PORSELEN

Kütahya Porselen, whose foundations were laid on March 16, 1965, operates in the production and sale of porcelain tableware and decorative items. The company, 75 percent of whose shares passed to the Güral family in 1984 and which went public on September 19, 1990, has 25 percent of its shares traded publicly. 

The company, with a market value of 2.3 billion TL, has 791 employees.

KEBAN DAM

Construction of the dam, one of Turkey’s first major investments in energy, began in 1965. 

Its first four large turbines went into operation in 1974, and the other four in 1981. The power plant, which alone met 20 percent of the electricity produced in Turkey when it was established, meets 1.8 percent of total electricity consumed as of 2020. 

The dam site is 45 km northwest of Elazığ and 65 km northeast of Malatya. It was built at the most suitable point on the Euphrates River, formed by the joining of the Karasu and Murat rivers.

PETKİM

Petkim is a petrochemicals company founded in İzmir in 1965 by Türkiye Petrolleri and privatized in 2008, when it was transferred to SOCAR. It produces petrochemical derivatives such as ethylene, benzene and polypropylene.

The establishment of Petrokimya Holding A.Ş., known briefly as Petkim, dates back to the realization on April 3, 1965, under the leadership of TPAO (Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı), of the idea of establishing industry in Turkey, adopted during the First Five-Year Development Plan process in 1962.

Petkim began its first investment activities at the rubber plant in İzmit, Yarımca, and later at the ethylene, polyethylene, chlor-alkali, VCM and PVC facilities.

After the establishment of the Aliağa facilities, a plastics processing factory was opened in Çanakkale in 1971 and began production. In parallel with the development of Turkey’s automotive industry, Petlas Lastik Sanayi A.Ş. was established in August 1976 and domestic automobile tire production began. 

Petkim Aliağa Facilities, which completed construction of its operations in İzmir Aliağa in 1984, were opened for operation. In 1985, the Aliağa and Yarımca operations, turned into Petkim subsidiaries under the names ALPET A.Ş. and YARPET A.Ş., were included in the scope of privatization in 1986 and attached to TOKİ in 1989.

The remaining 10 percent public share in the company, whose privatization was completed on May 30, 2008, was later purchased by SOCAR Turkey for $168.5 million.

TOFAŞ

TOFAŞ (Türk Otomobil Fabrikası A.Ş.) was founded in 1968 by Vehbi Koç, founder of Koç Group. 

In 1969, the foundations of the Demirtaş, Osmangazi production factory were laid.

The first Tofaş model was produced in 1971 under a Fiat license as the Fiat 124 (locally called the Murat 124, with the later version called Serçe). The first motorsports team was established the same year.

In 1975, exports to Egypt began with the Tofaş 124 model.

Tofaş, which began mass production with the Murat 124 model, later switched in 1977 to the Murat 131, known as the Bird Series (Şahin, Doğan, Kartal based on the Fiat Regata, and in 1983 Serçe, the continuation of the Murat 124), and then in 1990 to Tempra production simultaneously with Fiat. These models were followed respectively by the Tipo, Uno, Siena, Palio, Marea, Brava, Albea, Doblò and Linea. Production of the Fiorino model began at the end of 2007. Tofaş began producing the new Doblo in 2009 and the new Linea in 2012. Production of the passenger car Fiat Egea began in 2015.

In 1995, exports of the Tempra model began. In the same year, Koç Finans, which provided financing to consumers, was established.

Production of the Doblo model began in 2000. In 2001, Tofaş Fabrika and Tofaş Oto Ticaret merged. The same year, the Alfa Romeo brand came under the Tofaş umbrella.

In 2012, following the global merger of Fiat and Chrysler, sales and after-sales operations of the Jeep brand joined Tofaş.

In 2013, investments in Doblo America and Doblo FL, to be exported to the United States and Canada, were announced.

In 2020, FCA (Fiat, Chrysler, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati, Jeep, Dodge, Ram) and PSA (Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel, Vauxhall) merged, creating the Stellantis brand.

The organization, in which Koç Holding and Stellantis are equal shareholders, today continues its activities with a partnership structure of 37.8 percent Stellantis, 37.8 percent Koç Holding and 24.3 percent other shareholders. 

OYAK-RENAULT

Oyak Renault Otomobil Fabrikaları A.Ş. was established in 1969 as a joint venture between Oyak Holding and Renault Group to produce Renault-brand cars in Turkey, and began production in 1971.

Since Oyak Renault Automobile Factories began production in 1971, it has achieved many firsts, producing Turkey’s first station wagon (Renault 12 SW), first air-conditioned car (Renault 12 GTS), first diesel-engine car (Renault 9 GTD), first automatic-transmission car (Renault 9), first car with an onboard computer (Renault 21 Concorde) and the first diesel automobile engine. In 1998, the Megane Wagon began to be produced only at Oyak Renault. This model went down in industrial history by pioneering the Turkish automotive industry’s start of high-volume exports to developed markets.

Oyak Renault, established on an area of about 600,000 square meters in Bursa and having produced more than 7 million cars to date, consists of a vehicle factory, an international logistics center and an R&D center.

Oyak Renault, which produces the New Renault Clio and New Renault Clio E-Tech Full Hybrid models at its Bursa factory, is one of Renault Group’s most efficient factories in terms of production and performance, with an annual production capacity of 390,000 vehicles, and exports about 80 percent of its production.

The company, which makes significant contributions to the international competitiveness of the Turkish automotive industry, meets one third of Turkey’s automobile exports with about 5,500 employees.

The headquarters of the only organization in the Turkish automotive sector that produces engines, gearboxes, front/rear axles, engine cradles and running gear together with automobiles is in İstanbul. Fifty-one percent of its capital belongs to the French Renault SA group and 49 percent to the Turkish Oyak group.

İSDEMİR

İsdemir, one of the leading companies in the iron and steel sector, a main element of industry and development, guides the sector in Turkey with its activities in the 53rd year of its establishment.

İsdemir, one of OYAK Mining Metallurgy’s companies and still Turkey’s only integrated facility capable of producing flat and long steel, operates on a total area of 14.442 million square meters together with its social facilities. İsdemir, whose foundations were laid on October 3, 1970, in Hatay’s Payas district, is Turkey’s integrated iron and steel plant with the largest liquid steel production capacity.

After modernization and transformation investments, İsdemir also began producing flat products and, in light of OYAK’s experience in international markets, financial strength and modern management principles, has shown rapid growth while maintaining its pioneering role in the sector.

İsdemir, one of the driving forces of Turkish industry for more than half a century, is among the world’s most important steel producers with production capacities of 5.8 million tons/year of liquid steel, 3.5 million tons/year of flat products, 0.6 million tons/year of wire rod and 2.5 million tons/year of billet final products.

İsdemir, which plays an important role in increasing flat-product production capacity, of great importance for the steel sector, has 323 product grades in long products and 248 in flat products. İsdemir’s state-of-the-art products, coming off production lines that constantly renew themselves, provide basic inputs to many sectors such as pipe manufacturing, shipbuilding, construction and manufacturing.

This year, after the February 6 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes that deeply shook all of Turkey, İsdemir had to suspend production. The industrial giant, which experienced the earthquake deeply and was affected from its factory to its employees, suppliers and production processes, began working again at full capacity in a short time with all its strength. 

İsdemir, ranked sixth among Turkey’s 500 largest industrial enterprises in 2022, contributes to the development of national industry as well as İskenderun through the ecosystem it creates. Sending its products all over the world, İsdemir competes globally with the world’s best steel producers through its work culture, production quality and high value-added products. İsdemir, one of Turkey’s leading exporting companies, has a significant share in Turkey’s foreign trade, which it successfully represents internationally.

As of the end of 2022, İsdemir reached a market value of 96 billion 570 million TL and is included in the BIST Corporate Governance Index and the BIST Sustainability Index.

İsdemir, which continues its activities with the main principles of continuous development, environmentally sensitive production and making a difference in products and services, will continue to grow and strengthen together with Turkey as one of the Republic’s brands.

TEK

The Turkish Electricity Authority served as the state institution responsible for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Turkey between 1970 and 1994.

After it was abolished and restructured by a Council of Ministers decision in 1994, Türkiye Elektrik Dağıtım A.Ş. (TEDAŞ) and Türkiye Elektrik Üretim İletim A.Ş. (TEAŞ) were established as two separate economic state enterprises. In 2001, TEAŞ was abolished and restructured by a Council of Ministers decision, resulting in the establishment of the general directorates of TEİAŞ, EÜAŞ and TETAŞ.

ÇAYKUR

While tea cultivation in Turkey dates back to before the Republic, tea became one of Turkey’s most important agricultural products through the institutional breakthrough that followed the establishment of the Republic.

After the work carried out from 1924 to 1937 yielded positive results, tea seeds were imported from Batumi and efforts began to establish tea gardens. The first tea factory opened in Rize in 1947 with a capacity of 60 tons/day.

Domestic consumption demand, met through imports until 1963, began to be met through domestic production after 1963. The Tea Institution Law was put into force in 1971. With this law, all activities, including agriculture, production and marketing, were transferred to the General Directorate of the Tea Institution. 

TÜSİAD

The Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) began its activities in 1971 as a voluntary business organization formed by Turkey’s leading entrepreneurs and business executives.

TÜSİAD, which has the ability to represent areas such as production, added value, registered employment and foreign trade in the Turkish economy through the organizations represented by its members, is an organization that aims for a competitive market economy and sustainable development through its work.

TÜSİAD is headquartered in İstanbul and has representative offices in Ankara, Brussels, Washington D.C., Berlin, London, Paris, China and Silicon Valley. 

Meanwhile, TÜSİAD has been a member since 1987 of the European Business Confederation, the umbrella organization regarded as the representative of the European private sector. 

Eti Bakır

The Murgul Mining Fields, opened for operation by MTA (Mineral Research and Exploration) in 1935, were transferred to Etibank in 1937.

In 1971, Etibank’s subsidiary Karadeniz Bakır İşletmeleri was established in Samsun for the mining field. The Samsun facilities, two separate units of which began operating in 1973 and 1975, were privatized.

Eti Bakır A.Ş. Küre operations and Eti Bakır A.Ş. Samsun facilities, incorporated into Cengiz Holding under the 2004 privatization, were followed by the Murgul operation in 2006 and the Halıköy facilities in 2007.

Within Cengiz Holding, Eti Bakır A.Ş. continues drilling work reaching more than 100,000 meters in depth annually.

YÜNSA

Yünsa, today one of the world’s five largest upper-segment wool fabric producers, was founded by Sabancı Holding in 1973. Positioned as Europe’s second-largest wool factory and producing men’s fabric, the company added women’s clothing to its portfolio in 1998.

It went public in 1990, selling more than 40 percent of its shares. 

With the Competition Board’s approval of the sale on October 24, 2019, nearly 58 percent of Yünsa shares, representing the entirety of Yünsa shares held by Sabancı Holding, were purchased from Sabancı Holding by Sürmegöz Tekstil Yatırım, a partnership of Mustafa Sürmegöz and Ziraat Katılım. 

The remaining shares are publicly traded on Borsa İstanbul.

Exporting to more than 50 countries, Yünsa has its largest market in Germany and also operates as a fabric supplier for major international fashion brands.

Yünsa has design offices in Italy and Turkey, sales offices in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, and agencies in Spain, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, the United States, China and Russia.

KORDSA

Its foundations were laid in 1973 with Sabancı Holding’s factory investment in İzmit for the manufacture of tire cord fabric.

Over the years, Kordsa became the market leader in Turkey and also achieved leadership in world markets through its vast know-how in reinforcement materials and processes, its leading position in the market and its strategic approach in the tire reinforcement sector.

The company’s main objective was set out as “advancing with value-added and innovative technologies.” For this goal, it continuously invests in its customers, shareholders and employees.

Over the years, the company began entering new business areas and directed the tire reinforcement knowledge it had accumulated since 1973 toward the construction and composites industries.

Kordsa is among the world’s leading producers of industrial nylon and polyester yarn, tire cord fabric and single cord.

TUSAŞ

Türk Uçak Sanayii Anonim Ortaklığı (TUSAŞ) was established on June 28, 1973, within the Ministry of Industry and Technology to reduce Turkey’s foreign dependence in the defense industry.

With the decision to use F-16 aircraft to meet the Turkish Air Force’s fighter aircraft needs, TUSAŞ Havacılık ve Uzay Sanayii A.Ş. (TAİ) was established by TUSAŞ in 1984 as a Turkish-U.S. joint investment company for 25 years to produce the F-16 aircraft, integrate systems on the aircraft and conduct flight tests before delivering them to the Air Force.

Before the 25-year period was completed, the foreign shares of TAI were purchased by Turkish shareholders in 2005 and the company was restructured. In this context, TAI and TUSAŞ merged and, under the umbrella of TUSAŞ – Türk Havacılık ve Uzay Sanayii A.Ş., expanded their activities and became Turkey’s technology center in the development, modernization, production, system integration and life-cycle support processes of aerospace industry systems.

Turkish Aerospace Industries, among the top 100 global players in the aerospace industry, is organized under six strategic business centers depending on project areas: the aerostructures group, aircraft group, helicopter group, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems group, space systems group, national combat aircraft group and engineering group. In addition, integrated logistics support is provided for all products designed/produced by Turkish Aerospace Industries.

BOTAŞ

BOTAŞ was established on August 15, 1974, to transport Iraqi crude oil to the Gulf of İskenderun within the framework of the Crude Oil Pipeline Agreement signed between the governments of the Republic of Turkey and the Republic of Iraq on August 27, 1973. 

Initially engaged only in oil transport by pipelines, BOTAŞ also began activities related to the trade and transportation of natural gas from 1986 to meet Turkey’s growing energy needs.

BOTAŞ, whose general directorate is in Ankara Bilkent, is among Turkey’s largest institutions with annual turnover of about 20 billion TL. It ranked second by net sales in the 2008 Fortune 500 list.

By Council of Ministers decision No. 96/6526 dated February 8, 1995, it was structured as a state economic enterprise (KİT) subject to Decree Law No. 233, operating in line with the principles of profitability and efficiency.

Today it carries out the activities defined in the natural gas market: gas import, export, storage, transmission, wholesale, LNG trade and oil transmission.

ASELSAN

Military Electronic Industry, or Aselsan for short, continues its existence as an Ankara-based defense industry company founded in 1975 by the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation to meet the military communications needs of the Turkish Armed Forces.

Since its founding years, the institution has expanded its customer and product range in a planned manner based on advanced technology and today has become an integrated electronics industry organization that develops, produces, installs, markets and provides after-sales services for modern electronic devices and systems. Depending on project areas requiring different investment and production structures, Aselsan has four group presidencies: Communications and Information Technologies Group Presidency (HBT), Defense Systems Technologies Group Presidency (SST), Radar, Electronic Warfare and Intelligence Systems Group Presidency (REHİS), and Microelectronics, Guidance and Electro-Optics Group Presidency (MGEO). 

ASELSAN, which carries out production and engineering activities at four separate facilities in Ankara’s Macunköy, Akyurt, Gölbaşı and Teknokent, has its general directorate in Ankara, Macunköy.

It also has satellite institutions in Ukraine and Baku.

YATAŞ

Before taking its current name Yataş, Süntaş A.Ş., which forms the foundation of the company, was established in 1976 and became Anatolia’s first foam factory. 

The company expanded its facility investments in 1979 and began producing foam mattresses in addition to foam; it broadened its product range by starting spring mattress production in 1981, home textile products in 1987, and sofabeds and sofa sets in 1993.

The company, which launched Turkey’s retail store system in 1988, became the first company in its sector to go public in 1996. 

Yataş, now able to export to more than 45 countries, continues its activities with two factories in Kayseri and one in Ankara, totaling 92,000 square meters of indoor and 160,000 square meters of outdoor area, more than 1,400 employees and over 400 sales points.

YASED

YASED International Investors Association was founded in 1980.

The association, with about 210 members, is the representative of international direct investors in Turkey and works with its members to create a better investment environment in Turkey.

YASED encourages information sharing among investors operating in Turkey, new and potential investors, and cooperation and communication, especially in a way that enables these investors to communicate better with association members. 

DÜNYA NEWSPAPER

As the Turkish economy shifted to a different economic model in the 1980s, a need also emerged for journalism focused on the economy. In response to this need, the Dünya newspaper was founded in 1981 by journalist Nezih Demirkent. In 1982, the sectoral magazine publishing organization Dünya Yayıncılık began operations. With the opening of the İMKB in 1986, stock market news also began to be prepared in the Dünya newspaper. In the period when journalism moved from Cağaloğlu to office towers, Dünya newspaper laid the foundation of its building in İstanbul’s Bağcılar in 1993. In 1994, the newspaper moved to this building. In 1995, the newspaper began printing color photographs and graphics for the first time. By 2000, the newspaper began online publishing. In the following period, the newspaper became one of the important actors in economic journalism while expanding its distribution and access network. 

İMKB-BİST

The İstanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) was created with the perspective of making Turkey’s capital markets more effective under “Decree Law No. 91 on Securities Exchanges,” published in the Official Gazette No. 18183 dated October 6, 1983.

It was established by the “Regulation on the Establishment and Operating Principles of Securities Exchanges,” published in the Official Gazette No. 18637 dated October 6, 1984, with the duty of regulating the principles and conditions for the establishment of exchanges in Turkey in order to create an environment suitable for securities trading in Turkey.

The regulation set out the principles for the establishment, operation, supervision and trading on securities exchanges in Turkey, as well as the establishment, operation and obligations of exchange members.

The first transactions began on January 3, 1986, with 19 stocks.

Its name became Borsa İstanbul.

On December 30, 2012, Capital Markets Law No. 6362 was published in the Official Gazette and entered into force. Pursuant to Article 138 of the law, Borsa İstanbul A.Ş. was established on the date the law entered into force to carry out exchange activities.

Borsa İstanbul, which brought exchanges in the capital market under one roof, obtained its operating license with the direct registration and announcement of its articles of association on April 3, 2013, after they were prepared by the Capital Markets Board and approved by the relevant minister.

Borsa İstanbul, or BİST for short, provides custody and clearing services to Turkish and foreign banks and brokerage houses operating in Turkey’s capital market. 

Its name, İstanbul Stock Exchange, was changed to “Borsa İstanbul” on April 5, 2013.

TURKISH HARD COAL ENTERPRISE

Coal production, which has an important place in Turkey’s industrial and labor history, also has a history dating back to the Ottoman period. Hard coal production in the Zonguldak coal basin began in 1848.

In 1854, a two-year temporary British administration was applied in coal, while in 1884 the period of companies began with permission for the export of hard coal. This period continued until the Constitutional Monarchy.

During World War I, the basin came under German influence. After the National Struggle ended in victory, modern institutionalization efforts began in this field as in every other field.

With new laws and the establishment of Türk Kömür Madenleri TAŞ in 1926, mining organizations followed one another in this period. The operating period continued until 1983, when it was decided by a Council of Ministers decision to establish the Turkish Hard Coal Enterprise. In 2001, the institution’s field of activity was expanded with the right to produce and have others produce other minerals in addition to hard coal within the basin boundaries.

TÜPRAŞ

Turkey’s first oil refinery, the Batman Refinery, founded in 1955; the İzmit Refinery with a capacity of 1 million tons/year, commissioned in 1961; the İzmir Refinery with a capacity of 3 million tons/year, established in 1972; and İpraş were brought together under the Tüpraş umbrella in 1983.

With Decree Law No. 60 on state economic enterprises, published on May 20, 1983, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (Petkur) was established. The same decree law also decided to establish Tüpraş. Thus Tüpraş began operations as a state economic enterprise under Petkur’s subsidiary.

In 1990, Tüpraş was transferred to the Privatization Administration, taking the first step toward privatization. In 1991, the first public offering of 2.5 percent of Tüpraş shares took place and trading began on the İMKB.

In 1998, the Automatic Pricing Mechanism entered into force. In 2000, with the second public offering, 34 percent of the company’s shares began trading on the İstanbul and London stock exchanges.

Tatneft-Zorlu Group won the privatization tender held on January 13, 2004, with $1.3 billion, but the cancellation case filed by the Petrol-İş Union was upheld by the Council of State and the sale was canceled. In the second tender held on September 12, 2005, the Koç-Shell Group, which submitted the highest bid of $4.14 billion, won the tender. On January 26, 2006, Tüpraş management was transferred to the Koç-Shell partnership.

In November 2005, before privatization was completed, it was announced that Shell’s share would fall from 10 percent to 2 percent. Koç Holding purchased Shell’s remaining 2 percent stake in December 2013, becoming the sole owner of the non-public portion.

The company’s headquarters moved from Kocaeli to İstanbul in 2021.

TOKİ

In 1984, the Housing Development and Public Partnership Administration was established outside the General Administration. In later years, changes were made to both its name and fields of activity. The institution’s stated purpose was determined as meeting the qualified housing needs of low- and middle-income citizens.

It was attached to the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of the Republic of Turkey by Decree Law No. 703 dated July 9, 2018.

DEİK 

The Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) is an economic organization established to monitor and assist Turkey’s economic, commercial, industrial and financial relations with foreign countries and international communities. DEİK was established in 1986 and restructured on June 23, 2008, by a regulation based on Article 58 of Law No. 5174.

On September 11, 2014, with the approval of the president, it was attached to the Ministry of Economy. DEİK has fully undertaken the duty of “conducting the foreign economic relations of the Turkish private sector” and, together with its founding organizations, members and business councils, is a voluntary “business diplomacy” organization formed by Turkey’s leading entrepreneurs and business representatives.

GALLERIA

Ataköy Galleria Shopping Center began operating as a shopping mall in the Ataköy neighborhood of İstanbul’s Bakırköy district. This shopping mall opened on October 1, 1988, through the initiatives of Turgut Özal, the prime minister of the time. Ataköy Galleria Shopping Center took both its name and design inspiration from The Galleria shopping center in Houston, Texas. This shopping mall is among the Chamber of Civil Engineers’ “50 Works in 50 Years” projects. The ice rink opened in 1989 is regarded as a symbol of the center.

PEGASUS

It was founded in İstanbul in 1990 as a joint venture of Aer Lingus, Silkar Yatırım and Net Holding, entering the aviation sector with charter flights (renting the entire aircraft rather than a seat). With the low-cost fare model it applied, it became an airline operating on short- and medium-haul flights.

Although it was purchased in 1994 by Yapı Kredi Bankası, then under Çukurova Holding management, all shares belonging to Yapı Kredi Bankası were purchased in 2005 by Esas Holding A.Ş., owned by Şevket Sabancı and his family. In December of the same year, it began scheduled domestic flights and became the fourth scheduled airline operating in Turkey.

Having one of the youngest fleets among domestic airlines, as of August 21, 2023, it continues operations with a total fleet of 103 aircraft with an average age of 4.8 years, consisting of 15 Boeing 737-800s, nine Airbus A320ceos, 46 Airbus A320neos and 33 Airbus A321neos.

TOYOTA

Toyota Otomotiv Sanayi Türkiye A.Ş., headquartered in Sakarya-Adapazarı, Turkey, was established in July 1990 under the name Toyotasa. The foundation of the factory in Sakarya was laid in May 1992, and it began operations in September 1994.

In 2000, the company’s production and sales/marketing units were separated, and sales/marketing activities were left to a company named Toyotasa Toyota Sabancı Pazarlama ve Satış A.Ş. In October 2001, with Sabancı Holding transferring its shares, the company’s current partnership structure emerged.

Ninety percent of Toyota Turkey shares belong to Toyota Motor Europe NV/SA (TME), and 10 percent to Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

Toyota Turkey, with a total investment of more than 2.12 billion euros, also employs more than 5,000 people.

Today, with an annual production capacity of 280,000 vehicles, Toyota Turkey is one of Toyota’s 10 largest factories outside Japan. A large portion of production is exported to dozens of countries, mainly in Europe.

SHOW TV

Show TV, one of Turkey’s first private television channels, was founded in 1991. 

The channel’s first general manager was Güneri Cıvaoğlu. Show Haber was presented in the channel’s early period by Gülgûn Feyman, and between 1996 and 2002 by Reha Muhtar.

The channel became a joint venture with Erol Aksoy and Dinç Bilgin in 1993, a joint venture with Erol Aksoy, Dinç Bilgin and Aydın Doğan in 1994, and again a joint venture with Erol Aksoy and Dinç Bilgin in 1995. It passed to Erol Aksoy in 1997. In 1999, it was purchased by Mehmet Emin Karamehmet.

On May 18, 2013, assets including Show TV were seized from Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, the channel’s owner, because of $455 million arising from credit relations related to İnterbank. Under TMSF supervision, Show TV and its sister channels were sold to Ciner Yayın Holding.

Show Türk, which delivers Show TV broadcasts and special-content productions to Turks in Europe, and Show Max, with alternative content, continue broadcasting under Ciner Media Group together with Show TV.

ETİ MADEN

It was founded in 1935 as Etibank, a bank established to finance the extraction of Turkish natural resources.

In 1993, the company’s banking operations were privatized and its mining activities were combined under Eti Holding A.Ş.

In 2004, the company was restructured and took the name Eti Maden İşletmeleri. Its subsidiaries include Ab Etiproducts Oy, established in Finland, which distributes Eti Maden İşletmeleri products in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia and Africa.

The General Directorate of Eti Maden İşletmeleri is a publicly owned mining and chemical state institution in Turkey that extracts primarily boron minerals and derivatives. In Turkey, which has 72 percent of the world’s known boron resources, boron mineral mining is in state hands.

By a decree published on February 24, 2017, it was decided to transfer all of its shares to the Türkiye Wealth Fund.

TURKCELL

Turkcell was established as a joint-stock company in 1993 and began operations in February 1994.

Since July 2000, its shares have traded on Borsa İstanbul and in New York.

In December 2011, Sonera Holding and Çukurova Group directly and indirectly owned approximately 37.1 percent and 13.8 percent of Turkcell’s shares, respectively. 

In August 2009, the International Chamber of Commerce issued a ruling that Çukurova should distribute all its remaining shares in Turkcell Holding to TeliaSonera, but this did not take place. 

In 2016, Çukurova Holding pledged its indirect shares in Turkcell to Ziraat Bankası against its debts for $1.6 billion.

In June 2020, Telia Company, Turkcell’s largest indirect partner, sold its 24.02 percent indirect stake for $530 million to the Türkiye Wealth Fund and IMTIS Holdings, established by LetterOne. 

Çukurova Holding sold its 13.76 percent indirect pledged stake to the Türkiye Wealth Fund for $1.61 billion.

The Türkiye Wealth Fund gained control of Turkcell in October 2020 with a 26.2 percent privileged share.

IMTIS Holdings became the largest minority shareholder with a 24.8 percent stake through an investment of $334 million.

The complex shareholding structure and all disputes among the partners were resolved. 

Over time, the company’s shareholding structure became 26.2 percent Türkiye Wealth Fund, 19.8 percent Alfa Group and 54 percent publicly traded.

The company sells phones from China-based ZTE and Huawei under its own brand. The T10, one of the first phones released in Turkey under an operator brand, gave way to new devices launched each year. 

Privatization Administration

The Privatization Administration, a public legal entity with a special budget attached to the Ministry of Treasury and Finance of the Republic of Turkey, was established by Law No. 4046 on Privatization Practices dated November 27, 1994.

The duties of the Privatization Administration were regulated in Article 353 of Presidential Decree No. 4, and it generally carries out privatization-related work and transactions.

The first regulation on privatization, which came onto the agenda in Turkey after 1983, was made with Law No. 2983 enacted in 1984, allowing real and legal persons to become partners in state economic enterprises (KİT) and their facilities through share issuance or allowing the operating rights of these facilities to be transferred for certain periods; the same law assigned the “Housing Development and Public Partnership Administration” to carry out the specified duties.

In addition to the privatization program, the administration also undertook duties such as carrying out mass housing practices, managing the Public Partnership Fund and earning returns on monies accumulated in the Employees’ Savings Encouragement Account.

With Law No. 4046 on Privatization Practices, published in the Official Gazette dated November 27, 1994, and entering into force, the Privatization High Council (ÖYK) was established to be authorized in every matter related to privatization transactions. The Privatization Administration, established under the prime minister, was assigned to carry out privatization-related transactions. 

The prime minister was allowed to exercise powers arising from the law through a minister he would designate. The law expanded the scope of privatization, redefined its purpose, and made arrangements allowing the privatization of economic state enterprises and their institutions and shares, as well as other public institutions and organizations and Treasury-owned shares.

With Article 85 of Decree Law No. 703 dated 2018, some provisions in Law No. 4046 concerning the establishment, duties, service units and personnel of the Privatization Administration were amended and some were repealed. In addition, with the same decree law and Temporary Article 29 added to Law No. 4046 in Article 3 of Law No. 4046, it was regulated that matters being considered by the Privatization High Council would be concluded by the president or an authority he would authorize.

Subsequently, Articles 352-357 of Presidential Decree No. 4, published in the Official Gazette No. 30479 dated July 15, 2018, made regulations concerning the establishment, duties, service units and personnel of the Privatization Administration, and under these regulations the administration was attached to the Ministry of Treasury and Finance. In addition to these regulations, Circular No. 2018/3 dated August 1, 2018, issued by the Presidency stated that the duties and powers of the Privatization High Council were assigned to the president.

TAV

TAV’s history began in 1997 with the tender for the İstanbul Atatürk Airport International Terminal, one of the first examples of projects carried out under the “Build-Operate-Transfer” model. 

TAV Airports, restructured in 2006, was offered to the public in February 2007. In May 2012, Groupe ADP became the majority shareholder of TAV Airports. 

TAV Airports operates Antalya, Ankara Esenboğa, İzmir Adnan Menderes, Milas Bodrum and Gazipaşa Alanya airports in Turkey, and abroad operates at Almaty in Kazakhstan; Tbilisi and Batumi in Georgia; Monastir and Enfidha-Hammamet in Tunisia; Skopje and Ohrid in Macedonia; Medina in Saudi Arabia; and Zagreb Airport in Croatia.

BDDK

The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) was established under the Banking Law dated June 23, 1999, as an authority with public legal personality and administrative and financial autonomy, pursuant to policies aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the auditing and supervision system in financial markets and providing independent decision-making mechanisms.

It was strengthened in terms of independence, effectiveness and capacity with the Banking Law No. 5411 dated November 1, 2005.

The institution operates to protect the rights and interests of depositors in Turkey, to create a suitable environment for banks and special finance institutions to function in a healthy, effective and globally competitive structure within market discipline, and thereby to contribute to the country’s long-term growth and stability.

The board consists of seven members, one chair and one deputy chair. The chair of the board is also the head of the institution. The chair and members are appointed by the president. The president designates one of the members as deputy chair.

 TEİAŞ

TEİAŞ, which began operations in 2001, continues its activities in accordance with the new market structure under the “Transmission License” it obtained from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Turkey (EPDK) in 2003, with central units and design, facility, inspection, operation, maintenance and load-dispatch units spread across the country. 

Simit Sarayı

It was founded in 2002 by Haluk Okutur, Mehmet Tarakçı and Abdullah Kavukçu. The company, which reached 18 branches in 2004, opened the world’s first simit factory in 2005. 

Simit Sarayı, which moved to the franchise system in 2007 with the aim of expanding into the global market, opened its first overseas branch in the Netherlands in 2010.

The company opened its pastry factory in 2012 and opened its first branch in New York in 2014 and in London in 2015.

In 2017, Simit Sarayı reached 11,250 employees with branches opened in 25 countries.

That same year, the company entered into a partnership with Saudi Arabia-based retail giant Fawaz Alhokair Group, selling 10 percent of its shares to the group.

The company went public in September 2023, with a total public offering size of 768 million TL.

TÜRKSAT

The history of Turkey’s satellite operations dates back to the early 1990s. In 1990, the “Türksat National Communications Satellites” contract was signed with the French company Aerospatiale. Turkey’s first satellite, Türksat 1A, was launched on January 24, 1994, and exploded 12 minutes after liftoff. After the first unsuccessful attempt, the Türksat 1B satellite was also sent that same year and successfully placed into orbit. The company’s third satellite, Türksat 1C, entered service in 1996. The Türksat 2A (Eurasiasat 1) satellite was launched on January 10, 2001. It served at the same position as Türksat 1C.

Turkey’s satellite operator Türksat AŞ was established in 2004 during Türk Telekom’s privatization process as the institution responsible for the rights, management and operation of satellite orbital positions within the scope of national sovereignty. In the 2000s, the satellite fleet was expanded. As of the Republic’s 100th year, the number of active satellites was five, while Türksat 6A is planned to be launched in 2024. 

PEAK GAMES

As Turkey’s economy gained a structure that adapted to the global economy and the requirements of the age with the Republic, striking ventures also emerged in technology. One of these was the gaming company Peak Games. The mobile game company, founded in 2010, designed many popular games.

By 2020, the company was sold to the American video game company Zynga for a total of $1.8 billion, $900 million in cash and the remainder through share sales. With this sale, Peak Games became Turkey’s first billion-dollar venture, a unicorn.  

STAR REFINERY

The foundations of STAR Refinery, one of the largest investments after 2010, were laid in 2011. The refinery, with a crude-oil processing capacity of 10 million tons and an investment of $6.3 billion, opened in 2018.

In the STAR Refinery project, SOCAR’s share was 60 percent and the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s share was 40 percent. In 2019, the first naphtha produced by STAR Refinery was delivered to Petkim. By 2022, the refinery had risen to third place in the “Turkey’s 500 Largest Industrial Enterprises” ranking prepared by the İstanbul Chamber of Industry.

GETİR 

The company was founded on July 9, 2015, by Turkish entrepreneur Nazım Salur.

In the second half of 2019, Getir doubled its orders, reaching almost 1.5 million orders in December of that year. The company generated $120 million in revenue from sales in 2019.

In January 2021, Getir began serving in London. In May of the same year it began serving in Amsterdam, and in June in Berlin and Paris. In July 2021, the company acquired all of BLOK, a rapid grocery delivery application operating in Spain and Italy. BLOK continued under the Getir name and also began serving in Lisbon.

Getir acquired a 75 percent share in MOOV, a car-sharing application operating within Anadolu Group, with the Competition Authority’s approval dated September 23, 2021. After this acquisition, Getir araç service began. 

On December 9, 2022, it acquired its German rival Gorillas for $1.2 billion. On July 27, 2023, Getir announced it was withdrawing from Portugal, Spain and France, saying, “The complex legal environment and regulations imposed by local authorities made the company’s success quite difficult.”

TÜRKAKIM

The proposal for the TürkAkım project, which carries gas from Russia through the Black Sea to Turkey, was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Turkey in 2014.

The project, which replaced the previously planned “South Stream Project,” became official with an agreement signed in 2016. The TürkAkım Project was made ready for gas flow as of December 31, 2019, while the official opening of the line was held on January 8, 2020.

TürkAkım, with a total gas transportation capacity of 31.50 billion cubic meters, 15.75 billion cubic meters in each of its two lines, supplies gas to Turkey through its first line, while the second line transfers gas to Europe. 

TOGG

The “babayiğit” who decided to work together to produce a domestic car in Turkey were announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in November 2017.

For this purpose, Türkiye’nin Otomobili Girişim Grubu Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. was established on June 25, 2018, by Anadolu Group, BMC, Kök Group, Turkcell, Zorlu Holding and TOBB. Construction of the factory in Bursa’s Gemlik district first began on July 18, 2020.

The factory, whose site is approximately 1.2 million square meters, was opened on October 29, 2022, with the participation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The factory construction was completed in mid-October 2022, and on October 29, 2022, the first TOGG came off the production line in the “Anadolu Red” color. Orders for Togg began in March 2023, and in the Republic’s 100th year many Togg vehicles took to the roads.