"The working class will reclaim the wealth it has created": Turkish Communists to billionaires

Letter from the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) to the 35 Capitalists from Turkey Listed Among the World’s Billionaires

TKP had issued a statement on April 11 and launched a political struggle targeting the monopolies, namely TÜSİAD, the biggest organisation of the capital in Turkey. This letter was posted to the 35 capitalists from Turkey recently listed by Forbes among the world’s billionaires in this scope.

April 14, 2025

Your names have appeared in a recent list published by an international financial magazine.

The Turkish edition ran the list under the headline: "Billionaire Turks", noting that “The total wealth of the 35 Turks on the billionaires list stands at $79.5 billion. This is a record.”

Some of you are members of the same family; others are business partners.

Upon closer examination, this immense wealth is concentrated in just 23 holdings, partnerships, or families. In a country of 86 million people, roughly 30 individuals from 14 wealthy families now rank among the richest billionaires in the world.

We are not writing to congratulate you, nor to demand anything.

We are writing to confront you with facts you can no longer conceal and to remind you of a few realities.

Turkey’s gross national income reached approximately $1.322 trillion in 2024 — a substantial figure. Divided by the population, that results in a per capita income of about $15,000. The government boasts that “Turkey is now a high-income country by World Bank standards.”

There is, in fact, a high income -but the working class sees little of it. While millions struggle with poverty, your small group of ultra-wealthy business owners possesses more wealth than the combined annual income of 40 million people in Turkey. This doesn’t even include the undisclosed sums you’ve tucked away in offshore accounts.

You have a favorite government official — the AKP’s Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Şimşek. For nearly two years, he has overseen an austerity program that has hit working people hard. The population has grown poorer. The minimum wage fell below the poverty line just three months after it was set. Pensions for retirees barely qualify as handouts. And every year, thousands of workers are killed in workplace homicides while you accumulate ever more wealth.

How is it that your fortunes grow, even as workers grow poorer, workers die, and millions face a future clouded by uncertainty? Yes, the Turkish economy is growing -but the fruits of that growth are divided among a select few. Your companies continue to post record profits. Government incentives flow uninterrupted in your direction. Tax exemptions and privileges for your businesses show no sign of stopping.

This is inequality on a staggering scale. This is injustice at its core. What creates this inequality and injustice is the exploitation that prevails in Turkey thanks to you. You have established a system in which people exploit people, and a handful of families like yours have seized the country's resources through various means—and now you are enjoying its benefits. To put it more clearly: the billions of dollars in wealth that are widely publicized in the press represent riches created by the sweat and labor of Turkey’s working class.

In our eyes, the greatest crime is the exploitation of people by people -and you are responsible for this crime.

The working class will reclaim the wealth it has created.

Everything that you have taken will be returned to the people who earned it.

And when this system of exploitation and plunder is finally dismantled, the wealth of this country will belong equally to those who built it.

Only then will justice and equality truly prevail in Turkey.

Communist Party of Turkey

List of recipients:

Ahmed Topbaş - BİM

Ahmet Çalık - Çalık Holding

Ali Erdemoğlu - Sasa

Ali Metin Kazancı - Aksa

Aydın Doğan - Doğan Group

Bülent Eczacıbaşı - Eczacıbaşı Holding

Deniz Şahenk - Doğuş Holding

Eren Özmen - Sierra Nevada Corp

Erman Ilıcak - Rönesans Holding

Faruk Eczacıbaşı - Eczacıbaşı Holding

Fatih Özmen - Sierra Nevada

Feridun Geçgel - Astor

Ferit Şahenk - Doğuş Holding

Filiz Şahenk - Doğuş Holding

Haluk Bayraktar - Baykar

Hamdi Akın ve ailesi - Akfen – TAV

Hamdi Ulukaya - Chobani

Hüsnü Özyeğin - FİBA Holding

İbrahim Erdemoğlu - Sasa

İpek Kıraç - Koç Holding

Kazım Türker - Türkerler Holding

Mehmet Aydınlar - Acıbadem Healthcare Group

Mehmet ve Sinan Tara - Enka Holding

Murat Ülker - Ülker

Murat Vargı - MV Holding

Mustafa Küçük - LC Waikiki

Mustafa Latif Topbaş - BİM

Mustafa Rahmi Koç - Koç Holding

Nihat Özdemir - Limak

Selçuk Bayraktar - Baykar

Semahat Arsel - Koç Holding

Sezai Bacaksız - Limak

Şaban Cemil Kazancı - Aksa

Şefik Yılmaz Dizdar - LC Waikiki

Uğur Şahin - Biantech