Turkish billionaire Ağaoğlu apologizes to ‘Kuwaiti friends’

ISTANBUL

Ali Ağaoğlu, the billionaire head of the Ağaoğlu Group construction company, apologized over remarks he made about Kuwaitis, who reportedly bid to buy his house, in a recently broadcast documentary on the BBC. 

Ağaoğlu said in a written statement that the comments he recently made against a mediator who wanted to market his house to foreigners were misinterpreted, saying his comments were wrongly reflected. 

He said he had permanent and deep relations with Kuwaiti friends, stating that he informed his friends and apologized, naming the documentary as an “attempt to hurt Turkish-Kuwaiti” relations. 

Ağaoğlu appeared on the documentary, swearing at people who wanted to buy his house. 

In the same episode of the documentary, in which British TV presenter Simon Reeve travels around Turkey, he visits Ağaoğlu in his Istanbul home. After asking whether a group of bags belongs to Ağaoğlu, the real estate mogul responds: “No, these are not mine. But the [women] who use them are my property.”

An investigation was opened into Ağaoğlu over sexist comments he made in the documentary. 

His words drew condemnation from women’s rights NGOs, as well as main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Manisa deputy Tur Yıldız Biçer, who said she had applied to a prosecutor over his “insulting” language.

Ağaoğlu had previously been probed by prosecutors over his comments on one-night stands in an interview with private broadcaster CNN Türk back in April 2016.