Dzengiz Holding, a major Turkish construction and mining company, has grown over the past two decades thanks to tenders from Erdogan's government. Now he deals with political propaganda in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But why?
The "Gang of Five" is the name given by critics to the top five companies consistently awarded by President Erdogan's government in Turkey for the largest infrastructure projects. Among them is Mehmet Džengiz, general director of Džengiz Holding.
From building the first nuclear power plant in Turkey, to importing record amounts of sanctioned goods, Džengiz Holding has its fingers in countless sectors. Between 2002 and 2020, the company secured $42,1 billion in contracts, a staggering sum almost equal to the size of Paraguay's entire economy.
Deutsche Welle's (DW) Turkey Program, together with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), also revealed in the Pandora Papers as well as the Panama Papers that CEO Mehmet Cengiz invested some of his wealth acquired through public tenders in tax havens.
Media, a company that owns copper mines
The company has hit the headlines several times over the past decade, mostly due to controversies surrounding public tenders awarded directly to the company, but also due to threats to journalists and the environmental impact of the company's projects.
However, according to public documents obtained by DW, Džengiz Holding decided to shape the front pages itself - strangely enough, it chose Bosnia and Herzegovina for that.
One of dozens of companies managed by the Holding is Eti Bakir. In 2015, she founded the company Simurg Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a capital of around 29.000 euros. Simurg Media owns two media: the daily information internet portal Faktor and the weekly political magazine STAV.
Why is a Turkish company investing in Bosnian media?
In an interview with DW, Borka Rudić, secretary general of the Association of Journalists of Bosnia and Herzegovina, pointed out that Simurg media's publications are aimed at the Bosniak population, which makes up half of the country's population.
"We are a small market as a country," she said, "and Simurg Media focused on only one part, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They have no chance of making a profit or being a sustainable media company."
According to Radić, this is also an indicator that Džengiz Holding's media investment is "politically motivated", and that the company does not aim to make a profit.
Đan Ertuna from the private Istanbul Bahçeşehir University, who is also a journalist, says that it has become a common practice for business companies to enter the media, stressing that their "only goal is not to make money from journalism or publishing".
Ertuna believes that international companies, such as Džengiz Holding, "do not enter the media for profit, but for the survival of their business relationships" and claims that "when there are no legal obstacles, they aim to create a sphere of influence for themselves".
Džengiz Holding reaps the cream of the crop in record tenders
Džengiz Holding has been receiving record contracts throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2012. The total value of the two highway projects in 2012 was 383 million dollars, or about 306 million euros.
In the period from 2018 to 2020, the company won jobs worth over 275 million euros in tenders. And in March 2023, Džengiz Holding won a job in another record tender worth 420 million euros.
Genghis projects bigger than the trade exchange of the two countries
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), the volume of trade between Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2022 was 900 million euros. In a country with a gross domestic product of 24 billion euros, the total value of the contracts won by Džengiz Holding at tenders in the last 11 years exceeds one billion euros. The largest part of the financing of these projects was provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank.
According to Džan Ertuna, the conditions for companies to operate abroad cannot be considered completely independent of foreign policy, especially when it comes to business between countries with good relations. "Obviously, companies that have some form of public support gain an advantage over others."
Engaging in "party propaganda"
According to the media report "Propaganda, misinformation and models of hatred in the media and communication in Bosnia and Herzegovina", which was published in 2020 with the support of the European Union, STAV, which is connected to Džengiz Holding, follows "the political party agenda of the SDA (Party of Democratic Action) and reports favorably on its members and Turkish President Erdogan". The report also states that "any kind of criticism against the party is portrayed as an attack on Bosniaks and the state."
According to Đan Ertuna, given the existing complex of relations in Turkey, it is not surprising that companies like Džengiz Holding "invest in the media for the benefit of the government that supports these investments abroad in order for the company to preserve its own business relations in the country."
Sociologist Dirim Ozkan, who has been living in Sarajevo for many years, says that the SDA party, which was founded in 1990 by Bosniak politician Alija Izetbegović, comes from the Islamic tradition and is supported by Erdogan's government.
"The SDA can be considered neo-Ottomanist"
Highlighting the ideological aspect of SDA's support for President Erdogan, Ozkan says: "SDA is a party that can even be considered neo-Ottomanist."
"While Serbia is the big brother of the Bosnian Serbs, Croatia is the big brother of the Croats. Bosniaks and Muslims have no one to rely on. Turkey is positioned as their protective brother." However, according to Ozkan, Turkey is not a major trading partner of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to data from the European Statistical Agency EUROSTAT, 5,9 percent of Bosnia and Herzegovina's imports in 2022 came from Turkey, while only 1,7 percent of the country's total exports were made in Turkey. "Even if that discourse retains a certain tone, it has symbolic significance for conservative voters in both nations," says Ozkan.
Friendship between Izetbegović and Erdogan
The SDA is led by the son of party founder Alija Izetbegović, Bakir Izetbegović. From 2010 to 2018, he was a Bosniak member of the BiH Presidency for two terms. President Erdogan, whom Izetbegović called "my brother and friend", was the best man at his daughter's wedding in Sarajevo in 2021.
"Those emotional moments of Izetbegovic and President Erdogan shown on television, and their brotherhood, affect Muslim voters in Bosnia," says Ozkan.
He reminds that Fahrudin Radončić, one of the most important political rivals of Bakir Izetbegović, commented after the defeat in the presidential elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina that "in the elections he fought not only against Izetbegović, but also against Redzep Tajip Erdogan". According to Ozkan, it is clear that there is a political closeness between the two leaders.
Selma Zulić-Šiljak, project coordinator at the Sarajevo Media Center, shares this opinion. According to her, that friendship is often shown in the media, especially during elections.
"We notice that the hate-oriented narrative is increasing, especially during election periods," says Šiljak, adding that they have marked the website of daily online news Faktor with a "red flag" for "publishing disinformation."
In the report entitled "Harmful narratives during the elections" published by Mediacenter Sarajevo, it was analyzed how the media followed the campaign during the general elections in BiH in 2022. In the report, STAV and Faktor are among the sources of biased media coverage. It is also stated that the main targets of those two media were opposition parties and former members of the SDA.
Experts claim that STAV is financed from anonymous sources, because the money it receives from advertisements is not enough to cover the expenses of the already large newsroom.
Journalist Džana Ertun states that it is ethically problematic that the media - which in the name of the public interest should monitor the legislative, executive and judicial authorities - are run by conglomerates that win public tenders and adds.
"Media houses actually have business relations with institutions that they should review on behalf of society. Therefore, a serious question arises: to what extent can they fulfill such a task."
Mehmet Džengiz and Utku Gok, managers of Džengiz Holding for Bosnia and Herzegovina, did not respond to DW's request to comment on all of this.
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