Turkey’s deposit insurance fund TMSF has been appointed trustee of 10 companies operating under ammunition maker. Assan Group, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said on August 27.

Group owner Emin Oner and general manager Gurcan Okumus were previously detained over claims of Gulenism and military espionage charges.

TMSF, now a player in South African defence industry

Ankara-based Assan Group, was launched in 1985, produces. It has close contacts with the military and government officials as well as with defence industry ecosystem players in Turkey.

Last month, many military and government officials visited Assan’s stand at the IDEF 2025 defence fair held in Istanbul.

In May, Assan acquired South Africa’s Dynaflow Technologies. Consequently, the TMSF has become a player in the South African defence industry.

Assan is also building a production plant in Azerbaijan.

In 2024, military drone maker Baykar, owned by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s younger son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar, and Assan signed agreements with the UAE’s Edge to provide ammunition components and integrate them into drones.

Slice of the $100bn “holy cake”

On August 28, Bahadir Ozgur, a local journalist, reported that the combined volume of the Turkish government’s outstanding defence contracts reached $100bn as of 2025.

Ozgur describes the $100bn in question as “holy cake” as it is not possible to discuss it because of the bar in place due to “national security” factors.

The Assan slice of cake now goes to another diner at the table.

Selahattin Yilmaz operation

As part of the investigation that resulted in the seizure of Assan, Ismet Sayhan, a former board chairman at government-owned Machine and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE), was also detained.

The investigation was launched with the detention of Selahattin Yilmaz, a mid-tier gangster, described as “my fellow in the cause” by Devlet Bahceli, Erdogan’s junior ally and head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The “cause” Bahceli referred to is the “ulku” in “Ulku Ocaklari”, or, in English, the “Grey Wolves”, who form the youth wing of the MHP.

Top-level gangsters in Turkey include Alaattin Cakici and Sedat Peker. Yilmaz, however, operates in the second league, though he is close to Cakici.

In the 1970s, during the Cold War, the Grey Wolves were used to “cleanse” leftists in Turkey. In the 1980s, they became mafiosi.

Yilmaz gets confused at police station

Yilmaz is accused of conspiring to assassinate Ali Ihsan Aktas, who is serving as the star witness (a witness who has turned state witness, referred to as a confessor in Turkey) in the ongoing investigation targeting Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and chief political rival to Erdogan, along with other main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) mayors.

In his statement given at a police station, Yilmaz told officers he was shocked by the accusations he was hearing.

According to his statement, he believes that the CHP would consider assassinating Aktas, who has provided Istanbul prosecutors with required allegations for the jailing of CHP members.

Yilmaz is an MHP member. Aktas serves the governing coalition in which the MHP is a stakeholder. So Yilmaz fails to fathom why he would assassinate Aktas.

Nevertheless, Yilmaz remains in jail. According to prosecutors, Fatih Keles, head of Istanbul municipality’s sports club, hired Yilmaz to assassinate Aktas.

23 years of unending big “crises”

After Bahceli talked of Yilmaz as a fellow in the “cause”, the so-called opposition in Turkey went nuclear once again. In their eyes, the government is once more in a big crisis.

Since 2002, the CHP has talked about the government being in big crises. The next episode in Turkey’s recurring political theatre sees Erdogan declare he has won re-election with 51% of the vote. The CHP is always dead certain that Erdogan is on course to lose the next election. He never does.

Business as usual

Since 2002, the government has used deposit insurance fund TMSF as a tool for wealth transfer. As of August 29, TMSF had established management over 858 companies. 

In July 2024, Fatin Rustu Karakas, head of the TMSF, said that the fund had seized 1,371 companies over links to the Gulenist clan since the group allegedly orchestrated a military coup attempt against the Erdogan administration on July 15, 2016.

The operation against the Gulenists is neverending.

The latest wave of company seizures was launched with the taking over of fast food chain Maydanoz Doner in February in relation to a prosecution aimed at Gulenists.

Since then, company seizures have been executed via three arms, namely the Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu operation, an operation aimed at illegal betting and the Gulenist operation.

In July, crypto exchange Icrypex was seized over money laundering charges. 

On August 19, the TMSF said that it had launched a total of 27 new restaurants since it took over Maydanoz Doner in February.

Separately, multiple municipalities run by opposition parties have been seized by the government.