Foundation of Erdoğan’s children given state discount for university land: Report

ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son Bilal Erdoğan is a board member of TÜRGEV. DHA Photo

A foundation with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s children as board members has received a land that belonged to the Treasury at a price much lower than the land’s actual value, daily Cumhuriyet reported on May 9.

According to the report, the Service for Youth and Education Foundation of Turkey (TÜRGEV), a charity nongovernmental organization that counts Erdoğan’s son Bilal Erdoğan and his daughter Esra Albayrak as board members, has been granted the land in Istanbul’s Başakşehir district for 30 years to establish a university. 

The 779,000-square-meter-land, which has been granted to the foundation for 3 million Turkish Liras, is worth 606 million liras according to the Finance Ministry’s official papers, Cumhuriyet report said. 

The land has been allocated to the foundation to be used for education purposes and dormitories, according to the report. 

TÜRGEV was granted the right to found the Ibn Haldun University on April 1. 

Ibn Haldun, the university’s namesake, was an Islamic philosopher in the 14th century, who focused on sociology, historiography, economics and political science. While the Ibn Haldun University plans to establish seven faculties in Istanbul, opposition deputies objected to the permission given to TÜRGEV during debates on the bill.