Bora seeks resolution in Chechnya

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Erbil Suri wants to put an end to a lingering payment row with Chechnya. DHA photo

Turkish construction company Bora İnşaat is preparing to send a representative through its Russia-based subsidiary Orion to Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov following the payment disputes between the parties.

Delays and incomplete construction projects in Russia’s autonomous Chechen Republic were the result of “force majeure,” Bora İnşaat owner Alper Erbil Suri said during an Istanbul meeting yesterday, adding that the construction company owed a total of $16.5 million to Russia and Chechnya.

Hundreds of Turkish construction workers were stranded in Chechnya after Suri left the country upon the payment disputes. The workers returned to Turkey months after in late December.

Orion has undertaken 40 projects worth $351 million in Chechnya and did not have any losses until the latest row, Suri said. The company put $60 million back into new Chechen projects, he added. However, today the company claims to have more than $94 million in debt in Chechnya. Suri said he does not have any assets in Turkey, contesting earlier statements by Kadyrov. Suri claimed to have sold all of his assets for $3.5 million.

“Suri came to Chechnya without a cent. I gave him a 10 million euro loan. I told him to bring the money he had transferred to Turkey, sell his villa and apartments there and repay his debts both to the market and his workers,” Kadyrov told the daily Hürriyet last month.

“Then I told him I would return his construction site.”