
Turkey has been engulfed in a serious scandal, as Ahmet Çalik's guards beat to death a company employee who had gone to the offices of Çalik Holding to demand payments the company owed him.
Erol Egrek, 49, was beaten by Çalik Holding bodyguards and later died in hospital. The incident took place last month at the Çalik Group headquarters in Istanbul. Erol Egrek had worked for several years at one of the Çalik Group's mines and had not received part of his payments. The deceased worker had also won the court case, but despite this the company has refused to repay the payments.
This forced Egrek to protest in front of the group's offices, where he first threw a flower vase in the direction of the offices and then pointed a gun at himself, threatening to commit suicide. But during this time, bodyguards intervened and beat the employee, who was later taken to the hospital where he died.
Initially, the Çalik group reacted by denying the accusations of beating to death, but then it was the daughter of the deceased worker who published the footage showing several bodyguards beating her father. "I appeal to all those who have a conscience. Do not let it be forgotten," Egrek's daughter wrote on social media, accompanying these words with footage of the brutal beating.
The scandal has been accompanied by strong protests from Egrek's colleagues, who have protested massively in front of Çalik's offices. In one of these protests, they have directly blamed the group's owner, Ahmet Çalik, as the main person responsible.
"Hey Ahmet Çalik, how many more of us have to die before you give us our rights?" the employees shouted in chorus in front of the Çalik Holding offices.
The Çalik Group is owned by Turkish businessman Ahmet Çalik. He is present in Albania, owning the largest bank in the country, Banka Kombëtare Tregtare.