---

2. QUESTION TO THE PUBLIC: WHY DID GEDIK HOLDING, GEDIK SECURITIES AND GEDIK UNIVERSITY REMAIN SILENT?

This report addresses the following question TO ALL INSTITUTIONS AND FAMILY MEMBERS WHO BEAR THE SURNAME “GEDİK”:

“WHY HAVE GEDIK HOLDING, GEDIK YATIRIM MENKUL DEĞERLER (GEDIK SECURITIES) AND ISTANBUL GEDIK UNIVERSITY – WHICH CARRY ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE SURNAMES IN TURKISH INDUSTRY AND FINANCE – CHOSEN COMPLETE SILENCE WHILE THE NAMES ‘MEHMET GEDIK’ AND ‘RECEP GEDIK’ ARE BEING MENTIONED IN CONNECTION WITH SUCH SERIOUS CRIMES?”

Under normal circumstances, when a surname that belongs to a large family and to a corporate group with dozens or hundreds of employees and partners appears openly in connection with murder and serious criminal cases, this naturally triggers a reflex for that family and those institutions: “Are these people from us or not?” For any large family or company, the most basic step expected when people who share their surname are referred to publicly as “hitman”, “defendant” or “suspect” is a short statement to the public and to the judicial authorities, such as:

• “Yes, within our family/shareholder structure there are brothers named Mehmet Gedik and Recep Gedik, these are their ages and identities; however, they are not the individuals in question, they are completely different persons.” or
• “No, within our family/shareholder structure there are no brothers with these names; the individuals called Mehmet and Recep Gedik in the file have no kinship or corporate connection with us.”

Yet, to date, there is no known record of any clear, public “name clarification” statement made by Gedik Holding, Gedik Securities or Gedik University. This unavoidably raises the following questions:

• HAS THE GEDIK GROUP REALLY NEVER INVESTIGATED WHETHER PEOPLE NAMED “MEHMET GEDIK / RECEP GEDIK” WHO ARE MENTIONED IN CONNECTION WITH CRIMES DO OR DO NOT BELONG TO THEIR FAMILY AND CORPORATE STRUCTURE?
• IF THEY HAVE INVESTIGATED AND REACHED THE CONCLUSION THAT “THESE NAMES ARE NOT FROM US”, WHY HAVE THEY NOT OPENLY INFORMED THE PUBLIC AND THE JUDICIAL AUTHORITIES WITH A TRANSPARENT STATEMENT SUCH AS: “THESE ARE NOT MEMBERS OF OUR FAMILY; THE LIKELIHOOD OF MERE NAME SIMILARITY IS HIGH”?
• IF THERE REALLY ARE BROTHERS NAMED “MEHMET GEDIK–RECEP GEDIK” WITHIN THE FAMILY/PARTNERSHIP STRUCTURE, WHY HAVE THEIR AGES, PLACES OF RESIDENCE AND CORPORATE LINKS NOT BEEN DISCLOSED IN A TRANSPARENT WAY, ACCOMPANIED BY A CLEAR DISTINCTION: “THE PERSONS MENTIONED IN THE CASE ARE NOT THESE INDIVIDUALS”?

The simplest line of reasoning for the public is this: whenever an ordinary person sees someone with the same rare surname as their own in the news or online, they naturally ask, “Who is this, are they related to me?” When we are talking about a major holding, a brokerage house or a university built on that surname, the responsibility is even greater. The fact that, up to now, the Gedik Group has not issued even a minimal clarifying statement such as, “Within our family there are this many people named Mehmet and Recep Gedik in these age groups, and their relationship to the persons in this case is as follows / there is none,” appears to be a serious deficiency not only in legal terms but also in terms of ethics and social responsibility.

This report therefore CALLS ON ALL INSTITUTIONS AND FAMILY MEMBERS WHO BEAR THE SURNAME “GEDİK” to provide open, clear and documented answers to the above questions in the public sphere. For as long as the “name similarity” issue remains unclarified, the suspicion will persist that the real perpetrators may have been hiding behind a powerful surname and corporate prestige.