Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa.,.Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti'
could see the Uzans emerge politically
stronger than ever.
The Uzan business empire is built on
humble foundations. The patriarch of the
Uzan clan, Kemal, the son of a Bosnian
farmer who emigrated to Thrkey in the
1920s, built a construction empire in the
1970s and '80s, benefiting from close ties
with then Prime Minister Thrgut Öza1,who
in effect brought capitalism to the country.
Cern Uzan's initial enterprise was to launch
Thrkey's 'first private TV channel, Star TV,
together with Öza1's son, Ahmet, in 1989.
, The privatization boom of the 1990s allowed
the Uzans to expand into other media
and utilities-and to build the country's
second-largest mobile-phone carrier, Telsim.
Familyassets, according to Forbes
magazine, now exceed $1.3 billion. And
Cern Uzan heads the country's secondmost
popular political grouping, the Youth
Party, which he founded in July last year as
a vehicle for his own political ambitions.
But as the Uzans' reach has grown, so
too have their troubles. During the telecom
boom of the late 1990s, Motorola and Nokia
lent $2 billion and $700 million, respectively,
to Telsim. The Uzans never paid
them back. In 2002, the two firms filed
racketeering charges agl4nst the family in
~ U.S. Federal Court, accusing them of perr
fi> petrating an elaborate scam; ,
~ Cern Uzan denies charges of fraud and
racketeering in the Motorola case and
called the Thrkish government's actions a
disgrace that he would contest in the European
Court of Human Rights. "Erdogan's
aim is to destroy our wealth. He believes
that [the Youth Party] could not succeed
without my funding:' he says. "He wants to
ban me from political life:' Uzan even
claims he feels his life is in danger because
of political enemies. Adjusting his spotless
white cuffs, he says: "What happened to
freedom, the European Union? What happened
to democracy, Mr. Erdogan?"
For the 'Uzans, enemtes have always
come with the territory. The family faces
scores of civil and criminal, lawsuits at home,
ranging from extortion tofraud. Siemens,
Saatchi & Saatchi and Mark Mobius, the
mutual-fund manager, have all alleged they
were scammed by the Uzans. The Motorola
and Nokia cases, however, are exceptional. It
is the first major suit brought against the
family outside Thrkey.
And the figures involved are staggering.
Under U.S. racketeering law Motorola
is seeking to triple the $2 billion it says it
lost. "I think the proof is very strong that the
Uzans are business imperialists of the
worst kind, in that they will go to any
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