Environmental disasters and erased taxes: The bloody history of Çalık Holding, which rose with public loans

Çalık Holding, which grew with public resources during the AKP era, is now in the spotlight due to a worker's murder. Erol Eğrek, who had been unable to receive his severance pay for 10 years, was beaten to death at the Çalık building.

The murder has drawn attention to the holding's growth through state tenders and its rapid enrichment.

Billions of liras in loans provided by public banks during the acquisition of the Sabah-ATV media group in 2007 cemented Çalık's identity as crony capital. According to its annual activity reports, the Holding increased its equity from 26 billion 476 million liras in 2021 to 90 billion 118 million liras. The owner of the holding, Ahmet Çalık, ranked 18th on Forbes Turkey's 2023 list of Turkey's richest people with 1.5 billion dollars.

ÇALIK IS EVERYWHERE

This holding, which also owns the Aras and Yeşilırmak EDAŞ companies, is a partner with Kiler Holding in Aras EDAŞ. The Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kiler Holding is former AKP Bitlis MP Vahit Kiler. This holding's connection to the AKP is not limited to Kiler. Erdoğan's son-in-law Berat Albayrak served as an executive at Çalık Holding for a long time, leaving his post in 2013. During Albayrak's tenure, numerous energy and infrastructure tenders were awarded to Çalık.

Aras EDAŞ: Aras Elektrik Dağıtım A.Ş. was privatized in 2013 for 128 million 500 thousand dollars. Provinces where it is active: It operates in Erzurum, Ağrı, Kars, Erzincan, Iğdır, Ardahan, and Bayburt.

YEDAŞ: Yeşilırmak Elektrik Dağıtım A.Ş. was privatized in 2010 for 441 million 500 thousand dollars. It operates in Samsun, Ordu, Çorum, Amasya, and Sinop.

PARTNER OF ANAGOLD

On February 13, 2024, 9 workers died and 2 were injured as a result of a heap leach collapse at the Çöpler Gold Mine in the İliç district of Erzincan. 80 percent of Anagold Madencilik, which operates the mine, belongs to the Canadian company SSR Mining, and 20 percent belongs to the Çalık Group. The mine had previously come to the agenda due to cyanide leaks, erased tax debts, and high profits. On June 24, 2022, a pipe carrying cyanide used at the gold mine in İliç, Erzincan, burst, and cyanide and sulfuric acid flowed into the İliç Dam built on the Euphrates River. Despite this, Anagold's license was not revoked; furthermore, it was revealed in the balance sheet of the company's Canadian partner that its tax debt had been erased. In 2023, the tax debt erased for the Canadian company in Turkey amounted to 7.2 million dollars. This figure was approximately 209 million liras at the exchange rate of that day.

THE HAND OF TRANSFORMATION IN MEDIA

The holding was also the winner of the tender held in December 2007 for Sabah-ATV, which was seized by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) and put up for sale. In the tender where all other participants withdrew, the only bid came from the Holding, where Berat Albayrak was the general manager at the time. As the group entered the media sector, it received 750 million dollars in loans from public banks. The sale of Sabah-ATV to the Çalık group was a turning point in the media. After this date, a process began in which the majority of the mainstream media passed to companies close to the government. On December 20, 2013, Çalık Holding ended its activities in the media sector by transferring Turkuvaz Medya, which it owned, to the Kalyon Group.