In May 2011, a month before parliamentary elections that were to sweep him to power for the third time since 2002, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan triumphantly unveiled his “Two Cities” project, featuring plans for a third Istanbul airport, a new bridge over the Bosporus Strait, and a 35-mile canal connecting the Black and Marmara seas. At the end of his presentation, greeted with rapturous applause, he turned to a middle-aged man seated near the stage, and asked, half-jokingly, “Hey, Agaoglu, maybe you’ll want in on the job?” Two parts Crazy Eddie, one part Gatsby and one part Trump, Ali Agaoglu, No. 527 on Forbes’ billionaire list, is Turkey’s most famous and arguably most notorious construction mogul, a man known just as much for his collection of luxury cars and ex-wives as he is for his links to Erdogan’s government and the state housing authority in particular. When I met him earlier this year at his company’s sprawling offices, Agaoglu did not dispute the content of his May 2011 encounter with Erdogan. “The Prime Minister was kind enough to make that request of us and we will do what is expected,” he said. “We will get our fair share.” Today, Agaoglu is in police custody. On Tuesday morning, in a series of raids that seemed to catch all of Turkey, including Erdogan’s government, entirely off guard, Turkish police detained at least 50 people on suspicion of tender rigging, money laundering and bribery. In a country where corruption investigations, at least those involving figures close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), are rare, this one has netted a number of very big fish: the sons of three Cabinet members, the mayor of one of Istanbul’s biggest boroughs, the general manager of Turkey’s second biggest state bank, Halkbank, several prominent businessmen, as well as a number of civil servants. And finally, Agaoglu. According to a written statement released by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office, the detentions are the result of three separate probes that have been under way for at least![]()
