Probe launched into businessman Koç over Kurdish woman joke
İZMİR
Prosecutors have opened a probe into Rahmi Koç, a 95-year-old billionaire and honorary head of Koç Holding, Türkiye’s biggest conglomerate, over a joke about a Kurdish woman widely denounced as sexist and racist.
The blunder was made by Koç at the opening of a hospital in the western province of İzmir late on June 5, but when the footage started circulating online, it caused a backlash.
The joke revolved around a misunderstanding between a Kurdish woman and a doctor, drawing the ire of both the public and political figures.
The probe was announced by Justice Minister Akın Gürlek who said it was over “expressions deemed to target women and citizens of a specific ethnic identity.”
“Justice is never weighed according to anyone’s wealth, title, or status; the judiciary consistently upholds human dignity and the rule of law,” Gürlek said.
Koç’s joke was also slammed by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş and the ruling Justice and Development Party and pro-Kurdish the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).
In response to the backlash, Koç issued a brief apology, saying his remarks “were not intended to target any particular group." “I would like to sincerely express my regret,” he wrote.
On the other hand, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli adopted a different stance, arguing that opening an investigation into the businessman was wrong.
He said the group was celebrating its 100th anniversary and described the remark in question as a joke made in a sincere setting during the group’s hospital inauguration ceremony.
Attack on Koç firm center
Meanwhile, an armed attack targeted the headquarters of Otokoç, which operates under Koç Holding, on June 7, one day after the investigation was launched.
Media reports said masked assailants opened fire on the company’s headquarters in Istanbul’s Maltepe district using long-barreled weapons.
Police efforts to apprehend the attackers are ongoing, media reports said.
Authorities are also investigating whether the incident is linked to remarks made by Koç that drew public backlash.
Koç stepped down as chairman of Koç Holding in 2003, handing the reins to his eldest son, Mustafa Koç, who died suddenly of a heart attack in 2016. He was 55.
Koç Holding is a family-run conglomerate set up in the 1920s whose main sectors are energy, automotive, durable consumer goods and finance, although it is also involved in technology, food, retail, tourism, agriculture and shipbuilding.
Family-run conglomerates are the mainstays of Türkiye’s economy with interests in every sector, with Koç Holding accounting for approximately seven percent of Türkiye's GDP and around eight percent of Turkish exports, it says on its website.
Forbes magazine this year estimated that Rahmi Koc has a fortune of $2.4 billion.