Zorlu Holding CEO Cem Köksal's statement revealed!

The statement given to the police by Zorlu Holding CEO Cem Köksal, who was released after being detained, has been revealed. Köksal, who was detained due to an email he sent to company personnel regarding the month of Ramadan, was released under judicial control conditions. 

According to the report on Halk TV, Köksal stated in his testimony, "It is a message I wrote as a criticism to Mr. Ergün. The criticisms I saw on social media were intended to create a perception by pulling the message I wanted to convey to a different place; especially since the Vestel group of companies has employees in many countries and has many international markets, we have employees of every religion, every language, and every race."

The full text of Köksal's statement is as follows: 

"I have been serving as CEO within Zorlu Holding for approximately 7 months, and I have a total background of 28 years. The email in question is an email I wrote to Ergün Güler, the top executive of the Vestel group of companies, which is one of our affiliates.

I had prepared the email in question to be sent directly to Mr. Ergün, but it was inadvertently sent to all recipients in the post Mr. Ergün himself made. Because the 'reply all' button was pressed by mistake, the email also went to other users within the company that is the subject of the email. I realized this and quickly reached out to our company's head of information technology and asked for the email written to others besides Mr. Ergün to be retracted, but the email had reached many of our colleagues before the processes could be completed.

'IT WAS INTENDED AS CRITICISM'

My message in question was intended as criticism of Mr. Ergün. The main issue underlying the criticism was to remind of compliance with our company's procedures. In our company, we have procedures that include having our corporate communications teams review and publish messages that we will publish to large groups, especially regarding both celebrations and internal correspondence. It is clear which special days or holidays will be celebrated. Mr. Ergün made his post not personally, but as the CEO of Vestel. My criticism there was about him making the post in question corporately.

'IT IS CORPORATE CRITICISM'

I saw that this message was leaked to social media from internal company sources in some way. To summarize, the occurrence of this incident is a message I wrote as a criticism to Mr. Ergün because he expressed his personal thoughts under the title of CEO of the Vestel Group of Companies, far from professionalism. The criticisms I saw on social media were intended to create a perception by pulling the message I wanted to convey to a different place; especially since the Vestel group of companies has employees in many countries and has many international markets, we have employees of every religion, every language, and every race. It is extremely important for the healthy performance of the company that our employees are treated by us without any discrimination. Employee satisfaction is very important to us for company success. This approach is a very important issue in our company procedures. In the correspondence made, attention must be paid without discrimination of religion, language, or race. The letter written to Mr. Ergün is corporate criticism. Although he appears to be reporting to the Holding CEO due to the company's management planning, his dismissal can only take place after the decision of the Vestel board of directors and the decision of the Zorlu board of directors; I do not have such a duty or authority on my own.

'I AM DEEPLY SADDENED'

Therefore, it is clear that the message is just a criticism. If Mr. Ergün had published it personally, I would have had no criticism whatsoever. Throughout this whole process, especially after it was reflected on social media, I may have disturbed some people as a result of a serious misunderstanding, and I am sorry for this. I am also extremely saddened that a company like Zorlu Holding, which upholds its moral values, has been exposed to such criticisms. I do not accept the accusations leveled against me. I am deeply saddened by this process that has been experienced."

News Source: 12punto