Everything was going smoothly, as it had for a hundred years. Koç Holding, Turkey's largest industrial conglomerate, was marking its centennial. The anniversary ceremonies had even managed to cut through the agenda dominated by the CHP crisis — the event drawing attention for bringing together MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli and the CHP’s ousted chair Özgür Özel in what appeared to be a warm, candid exchange. Then, at that very moment, a joke told by Koç Holding Honorary Chair Rahmi Koç, 95, to former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım — call it the 'Kurdish woman goes to the doctor' joke — shattered whatever spell had been cast.
The fact that both Koç and Yıldırım laughed uproariously only made things worse. A criminal investigation was launched against Koç on charges of 'humiliating a segment of the population.' The DEM Party accused him of sexism. Establishments belonging to the Koç Group came under attack across multiple regions of Turkey.
THE MOSAIC DISPUTE
Koç and Sabancı have long been Turkey's two dominant industrial empires. In the 1990s, the Kurdish question was at the center of a different episode involving the Sabancı family. Sakıp Sabancı, then chair of Sabancı Holding's board, made a remark that upended the political conversation: Turkey, he said, was a mosaic of different ethnic and social groups. Investigations were opened against him. But the sharpest response came from Alparslan Türkeş, then leader of the MHP, who shot back: 'What mosaic, man?' It might have ended there. On Jan. 9, 1996, Sabancı Center was attacked by armed assailants. Board member Özdemir Sabancı and several executives were killed.
THE EMPEROR
The Koç Group is nearly as old as the Republic itself — the conglomerate has its roots in Ankara, where its founding patriarch Vehbi Koç began as a grocer. In 1973, author Erol Toy told their story in a novel called İmparator — The Emperor — which was widely read at the time. The book traces Koç Holding's journey 'from a corner shop to an industrial empire.' Toy gives Vehbi Koç, his thinly veiled 'Emperor,' the fictional name Fehmi Çok.
KOÇ'S RELATIONSHIP WITH POWER AND POLITICS
When Vehbi Koç moved to Istanbul and built the company into an industrial force, Turkey was under single-party CHP rule — and Koç was a CHP member, serving in its governing bodies. That changed in 1950, when the CHP lost the elections and the Democratic Party came to power on its own. After a few meetings with then Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, Koç resigned from the CHP.
What followed was a pattern: warm relations with whoever held power — including, notably, a public declaration of loyalty to the military junta that seized power on September 12, 1980. Hüsamettin Cindoruk, one of the center-right's most significant figures, who died recently, had leveled sharp criticism at the business world. At the onset of what he saw as Turkey's slide into authoritarianism, Cindoruk said: 'The business world has not put its shoulder to the wheel for Turkey's democratization. Business is responsible for where we find ourselves today.' The problem of democratization continues to deepen. Yes, the Koç family is celebrating its centennial — but the Kurdish question is still waiting to be resolved. Time passes. Koç grows. Turkey stands still.
