PM Erdoğan's son buys sixth vessel for his shipping company: Report

ISTANBUL

Burak Erdoğan, the son of the Turkish prime minister, has bought a sixth vessel for the shipping company that he co-founded with a partner, daily Sözcü reported on Nov. 9.

The new Malta-flagged cargo ship "Pretty" can carry over 91,000 tons and has almost the same capacity as the company's five other vessels together, the report claimed.

The firm of Erdoğan's eldest son, MB Denizcilik, owns five other ships, Safran 1, Sakarya, G. İnebolu, Cihan and Bosna, which have a total capacity of around 92,000 tons, according to the report.

The new vessel was built by a Chinese shipbuilding firm and cost over $20 million, the report claimed. Its crew has been sent to Singapore to bring the ship to Turkey, it added.

Erdoğan's business partner, Mecit Çetinkaya, is a veteran shipowner who also owns the firm Manta Denizcilik.