Ali Koc, a board member at Turkey’s largest conglomerate Koc Holding (KCHOL), placed full-page ads in all Turkish dailies, excepting Sozcu, to celebrate the EuroLeague victory of the Fenerbahce Beko basketball team, according to Sozcu.

Ali Koc serves as the president of sports club Fenerbahce. Beko, the sponsor of Fenerbahce’s basketball team, is a brand of white goods maker Arcelik (ARCLK), a subsidiary of Koc Holding.

EuroLeague winner

The Final Four of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague—the champions’ league for men’s basketball in Europe—was this year held in Abu Dhabi. On May 25, Fenerbahce claimed victory by defeating Monaco in the final game.

To celebrate Fenerbahce’s big win, Ali Koc decided to let some wealth trickle down in the form of payments for the full-page ads, which also amounted to advertising for his Beko brand. He also sent the message to the fans that he is as a matter of fact doing a very good job.

Unrelenting pressure

The triumph was Fenerbahce’s second victory in the tournament. And it amounted to a kiss of life for Ali Koc, who has been under heavy pressure from Fenerbahce fans due to the wretched performances of the men’s football team (FENER).

After each game, fans have called for Ali Koc’s resignation with heavy effing and blinding. One moment the speculation says, Ali Koc has quit, the next moment it says he has not.

Media under his spell

Given Koc Holding’s dominant position as a pipeline of ad funding for local media, no publication wants to criticise Ali Koc. That makes the fans even more angry.

Koc’s domination in the media, meanwhile, is not limited to Turkey. It has brands that are market leaders in dozens of countries. For instance, Arcelik is a market leader in the UK. The local dailies there also enjoy the full-page ads in question. It is smart to stay positive when it comes to Koc.

Scandal of the baklava

The rather different positions taken on Ali Koc taken by the media and the Fenerbahce fans surfaced again with a video carried by Demiroren News Agency (DHA), which comes under pro-government conglomerate Demiroren Holding.

In the video, shot before the basketball win over Monaco, Mustafa Varank, an ex-minister of industry who nowadays is simply an MP for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), gives Ali Koc a nibble of baklava.

Video: Ex-minister gives Fenerbahce president a bite of "lucky" baklava.

Who blessed the baklava?

Varank mentions that the baklava he put into Ali Koc’s mouth with his own hand is not just a simple piece of baklava but a “blessed” piece, blessed for good luck. So who blessed the baklava? It was most probably “blessed” in Turkey and brought from the homeland.

A difficulty here is the few glasses hoisted by Ali Koc prior to the game, before the “blessed” baklava was eaten. In many eyes, the “blessed” baklava was definitely insulted.

Moreover, it would have been more effective to let the players eat the “blessed” layered pastry as it was not Ali Koc who was asked to win the game on the court. The problem with that, though, would have been the domination of infidels in the squad.

Nevertheless, Varank is sure that it was his “blessed” traditional sweet that won the cup.

Sozcu spoils the mood

Thanks to Ali Koc’s dominant position as an advertiser, reactions to the video were limited to social media. But Sozcu, it seems, made a big mistake in reporting the criticism on its own social media account. It learnt the hard way that biting the hand of the master that feeds you is not a good idea.

The daily defended itself. It stressed in an article that it celebrated the victory by devoting full-pages to it on May 26 and May 27. It did not skimp on feeling. It praised the team that brought great “pride”. But then it went and spoiled it all, by sharing the damn video on its social media channel.

And what’s this? The daily confessed that it described the baklava as “not just a gusto spoiler, but a buzzkill too”.

On May 28, Beko full-page ads covered the back pages of the Turkish dailies. But not that of Sozcu. It was left with a broken heart.

More distressing ad punishment for Sozcu

After dealing such a heavy blow, leaving Sozcu to suffer in isolation, Ali Koc could have managed to cool down. But there was more of his ire to come. Next, Koc Holding’s subsidiaries cancelled their ad deals with Sozcu’s TV channel.

Offering a distressing detail, the daily reported how the audience of Sozcu TV was “left deprived as it could not learn of the superiority of Koc’s products compared to those of its rivals”.

Recalling the Fenerbahce trial

The emotional daily recalled the support it gave during the Fenerbahce trials held by Turkey’s Gulenists back in 2011.

It pointed to how among the recipients of the full-page ads were outlets who played the role of media arm to those who pushed charges of conspiracy. Sozcu defended the board members of Fenerbahce, the newspaper pointedly noted.

In 2011, Ali Koc was vice-president of Fenerbahce. The Gulenist prosecutor Zekeriya Oz launched an operation targeting football clubs for match-fixing. The then Fenerbahce president Aziz Yildirim found himself in jail for a year.

Back then, the Gulenists, who were still stakeholders in the country’s ruling Erdogan regime, controlled Turkish football, excepting Fenerbahce. The Gulenists were at the height of their power and attempted to take over Fenerbahce by launching the operation that led to the trials. But, the operation flopped. Ali Koc and other members of the Fenerbahce elite did not surrender the club to them.

Emotion and a cold potshot

Sozcu may have taken an emotional tone in griping about the advertising snub, but separately, with some cold relish, it reported at the same time that the baklava video was not a spontaneous thing.

The scene was shot three times. It was a production. Ali Koc was fed with baklava by the ex-minister three times. The first two shoots were thought not good enough, with the angle not satisfactorily framing the politician.

What took place was most surely not “a friendly chat and a momentous happening”, according to the daily.