Yıldırım Crescent

The Istanbul Branch of one of Turkey’s most important institutions, the Red Crescent, gives the impression of being a “family company”. The Board of Directors of the Turkish Red Crescent’s Istanbul Branch Directorate, on which Prime-Minister Binali Yıldırım’s brother İlhami Yıldırım serves as chair, is filled with people who are either Yıldırım family members or people with AKP connections. The Red Crescent, with its 2017 budget of 3 billion 300 million Turkish lira, towers among Turkey’s institutions.

Atatürk changed its name Atatürk

The Red Crescent was an association that a group of idealistic doctors came together to found on 11 June 1868. This esteemed civil society organisation, whose original name of Hilal-i Ahmer Cemiyeti was changed to the more modern sounding Kızılay at Atatürk’s behest, has continued to aid the needy in our country and the world from that day until now. The Turkish Red Crescent, headquartered in Ankara, is a civil society organisation having blood centres, disaster intervention centres and nearly 700 branches located in 81 provinces.

The Turkish Red Crescent is enabled to collect contributions without obtaining permission as a body operating for the public good. The self-employed and companies can book contributions of “food, cleaning materials, clothes and fuel” they make to the Turkish Red Crescent as expenditure and receive a tax reduction. The Turkish Red Crescent Istanbul Branch Directorate was established in 2012 as a branch of the Turkish Red Crescent General Directorate chaired by İlhami Yıldırım, who continues to serve as Turkish Red Crescent Istanbul Branch Chair. The Turkish Red Crescent Branch Directorate Board of Directors gives the impression of being a “family undertaking”.

The names involved

İlhami Yıldırım (Chair of the Board of Directors)

He is Prime-Minister Binali Yıldırım’s brother. He is the large shareholder of a three-partner
immovable property consultancy company in Çekmeköy. He also serves as Deputy Chair of
the Turkish Red Crescent Headquarters Auditing Board.

Ali Kurumahmut (Deputy Chair)

Ali Kurumahmut, who has only finished primary school and is the fellow townsman of
Erdoğan Bayraktar and was his janitor and when the latter was General Director of the Public

Housing Development Administration, first became Land Registry Supervisor at KİPTAŞ,
and moved on from there to become Assistant General Director at Public Housing
Development Administration affiliate Emlak Yönetim A.Ş., and went on to serve as its
General Director. He was removed from his post as Emlak Yönetim A.Ş. general director in
March 2016. It is alleged that his being sued by home owners on a scheme and the awarding
of tenders to companies with which he had involvement in Istanbul and Samsun played a role
in his removal from office.

Büşra Bahar Köylübay (Deputy Chair)

She is Prime-Minister Binali Yıldırım’s daughter.

Vahdet Erdoğan (Deputy Chair)

He has been Prime-Minister Binali Yıldırım’s brother İlhami Yıldırım’s close friend ever
since they were at middle school. He has held various posts in the AKP’s Çekmeköy Sub-
Province Directorate. He deputised for the sub-province chair for a period in 2014. The
companies he owns have obtained tenders worth billions of lira from numerous AKP
municipalities.

Mehmet Uğurelli (Board of Directors’ Member)

Mehmet Uğurelli, who served as the founding principal of Çekmeköy Güç Kardeşler
Anatolian High School, was later appointed founding principal of Özden Cengiz Anatolian
High School. On Teachers’ Day in 2012, Binali Yıldırım performed the opening of the school
endowed by Çekmeköy Municipality on land that the family had donated. Mehmet Uğurelli,
who has attended many joint events in the company of İlhami Yıldırım, was brought to the
Ministry of National Education as Ministry Undersecretary in December of 2016.

Bekir Kaplan (Board of Directors’ Member)

He acted as press consultant in the elections in Siirt in which President Erdoğan was first
elected to parliament in 2003. He served as Press Consultant to former Istanbul Governor
Hüseyin Avni Mutlu for four and a half years. He held the post of Media Relations
Administrator for the Lighthouse Association between the years of 2005-2009 and was
General Director of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality – Medya A.Ş. between the years of
2014-2016.

 Ali Ertuğrul Yıldırım (Reserve Board of Directors’ Member)

He is the son of Prime-Minister Binali Yıldırım’s brother, Çekmeköy Municipality Deputy
Mayor Eyüp Yıldırım.

Mehmet Ali Ergin (Board of Directors’ Member)

Mehmet Ali Ergin, one of the authors of the “Life Izmir” project at the time Binali Yıldırım stood as the AKP’s candidate for Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, has a company engaged in town planning and architecture.

Nazif Barış Çiftçioğlu (Board of Directors’ Member)

He is a member of the AKP’s Güngören Sub-Province Management Board and Binali
Yıldırım’s fellow townsman.

Abdülvahit Şimşek (Board of Directors’ Member)

He is proprietor of the company Q Shipping BV. Prime-Minister Binali Yıldırım’s sons
Erkan and Bülent have business relations with the company. When Abdülvahit Şimşek was
one of two board of directors’ members of AVS Küresel Gemi Tedariği ve Yönetimi A.Ş.,
the other was Prime-Minister Binali Yıldırım’s uncle’s grandson Rıfat Emrah Erence.

Yılmaz Sezgin (Board of Directors’ Member)

Yılmaz Sezgin, who is a member of the Çekmeköy Municipal Assembly, is also a member of
the Management Board of Çekmeköy Industrialists and Businesspersons’ Association. Sezgin
has his own family company. This company obtained the park and green spaces illumination
tender from Çekmeköy Municipality in 2012.

Seda Yıldırım (Reserve Board of Directors’ Member)

She is Prime-Minister Binali Yıldırım’s daughter-in- law. She is his son Bülent Yıldırım’s
wife.