Erdogan Purge Creates $10 Billion Bazaar for Would-Be Oligarchs
Taylan Bilgic
November 13, 2016 — 4:00 PM EST
Don’t be put off by his conviction for inciting murder, Turkish bus baron Galip Ozturk says. That was just how the secret society that tried to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan once punished people who refused to pay up.
The 51-year-old founder of Metro Holding fled the country two years ago to avoid a life sentence he says was engineered by followers of Fethullah Gulen, the reclusive Islamic preacher who’s been holed up in a rural Pennsylvania compound since 1999. Ozturk was granted a new trial and flew home last month, after Erdogan purged more than 110,000 people from the public payrolls, including the judge and prosecutor in his case.
More:Erdogan Purge Creates $10 Billion Bazaar for Would-Be Oligarchs - Bloomberg