Talented Müzeyyen: ‘I handed them to the AKP’

Timur Soykan

We had revealed that Müzeyyen Yazıcı, İstanbul Director of the National Property Movables and Liquidation Branch at the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, had appropriated for herself goods seized at customs by selling them. Müzeyyen Yazıcı, who is the aunt of Deputy Minister of Justice Mehmet Yılmaz, had been arrested on 2 October 2025, and the investigation was carefully kept from the public.

We have obtained new information about the large-scale fraud carried out by Müzeyyen Yazıcı and her son Ahmet Yazıcı. The multimillion-lira scheme reaches AKP-run municipalities. The details of the fraud are as follows.

Müzeyyen Yazıcı, a graduate of the AKP’s politics academy, ran for mayor of Niğde Ulukışla in the 2014 local elections. She worked for many years at the İETT General Directorate. After Ekrem İmamoğlu won İstanbul, she moved to the İstanbul Provincial Directorate of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change. She rose to Deputy Director. She was responsible for movables. Three years ago she became Director of the Movables and Liquidation Branch at the İstanbul Provincial Directorate of National Property under the Ministry.

CRITICAL STAGE

This unit is key in storing and destroying goods seized at customs. With a regulatory change in 2017, seized counterfeit or smuggled textiles, watches, shoes, sunglasses, perfume, engine oil, fuel, detergent and similar goods began to be delivered to the Movables Directorate of the İstanbul Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanisation. From there they were sent to National Property units and destroyed. Previously, the Provincial Directorate selected trustee warehouses and stored the goods there. Later a large warehouse was set up in the Tuzla Leather Industrial Zone. Tonnes of goods seized at customs were brought here. Normally, after the court issues a destruction order, the goods are destroyed under the supervision of depot staff, lawyers of the owners, and other officials and a report is issued. A later legal amendment allowed usable goods to be given to municipalities for distribution to those in need.

According to allegations, Müzeyyen Yazıcı carefully found openings in the system. She used two methods.

The first was removing goods from the warehouses and selling them by showing in reports that they had been destroyed. She needed a team for this. She hired people required to work for the public under Probation and placed them in the warehouse. She chose people with criminal records to remove the goods. In the warehouse there were truckloads of imitation luxury handbags, sunglasses, perfumes, shoes, watches. Müzeyyen Yazıcı and her accomplices entered and left the warehouse many times using different vehicles and smuggled the goods out in bin bags and holdalls. She even used her own vehicles for this. Some of the goods were sold to people with whom she had made deals. Some were sold back to the people whose goods had been seized.

THEY WERE PUT UNDER SURVEILLANCE

The second method was the cynical pretence of giving goods to those in need. The law allowed seized goods to be given to municipalities and distributed to those in need. Müzeyyen Yazıcı prepared reports saying the goods seized had been delivered to AKP-run municipalities. This allowed her to remove goods in bulk. If 100 items were delivered to a municipality, she sold 1,000 items.

Over time, Müzeyyen Yazıcı expanded operations. She had her son Ahmet Yazıcı, employed as a civil servant at AKP-run Dilovası Municipality, open a large warehouse in Kocaeli Gebze. She had the seized counterfeit goods transported to her son’s warehouse. From there she sold the smuggled and counterfeit goods to people who would put them on the market and pocketed the money.

This setup was noticed eight months ago and an investigation was launched by the İstanbul Provincial Gendarmerie Command. The Tuzla warehouse, Müzeyyen Yazıcı, her son Ahmet Yazıcı, the warehouse staff, those working under probation and others were put under technical and physical surveillance. All their phones were tapped.

Müzeyyen Yazıcı and some warehouse workers were followed after leaving the depot. For example, surveillance on 13–14 May 2025 revealed that goods were taken to an address in Kartal. This address was raided in the operation. Many wristwatches, women’s handbags, T-shirts, headphones, detectors and hard disks, which should have been destroyed, were seized. On 18 March 2025, goods had been delivered to a car accessories shop in Pendik. The raid here found many sunglasses, cases and hookah tobacco.

A shipment by a former depot worker named Ayhan Göl on 7 May 2025 was also followed. At a workplace in Ümraniye where he left the goods, many items were seized, including cartridges, watch boxes, phone cases, car stereos, boxer shorts, belts, headphones, women’s underwear sets, watches, knives, shoes, compressors.

Many findings were obtained during the investigation. On 30 September 2025 the İstanbul Provincial Gendarmerie Command launched the operation. Müzeyyen Yazıcı, her son Ahmet Yazıcı, two civil servants at the Tuzla warehouse of the İstanbul Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanisation, warehouse workers and buyers, 14 people in total, were detained. On 2 October 2025 Anadolu Courthouse Magistrates’ Court remanded in custody 9 people, including Müzeyyen Yazıcı, Ahmet Yazıcı and two civil servants. Six suspects were released under judicial control. They were charged with “forming a criminal organisation, aggravated embezzlement, and accepting and selling criminal goods”.

A SEARCH WAS CONDUCTED IN HER HOME

A search was conducted in Müzeyyen Yazıcı’s home. Many fake luxury watches, fake luxury handbags and other items were found. Other warehouse staff testified that Müzeyyen Yazıcı would come to the depot, load the goods she wanted into her car and leave.

The biggest seizure in the operation was made in the warehouse that Müzeyyen Yazıcı had her son Ahmet Yazıcı open. Truckloads of goods that had been shown as destroyed were found in the Kocaeli Gebze warehouse. The investigation determined that Müzeyyen Yazıcı and Ahmet Yazıcı put the criminal goods on the Gebze market through a Syrian suspect, Omar Baroudji. The seized criminal goods had investigation numbers and the names of the law enforcement units who made the seizure. Most of these goods appeared in reports as having been delivered to AKP-run municipalities for distribution to those in need. However, the investigation has not yet extended to the AKP-run municipalities that allegedly received these goods with fake reports and played a role in the fraud.

Two civil servants at the warehouse said in their statements that they followed the instructions of their manager Müzeyyen Yazıcı and did not know the goods were being sold. No findings showed that these two removed goods and sold them. According to their accounts, Müzeyyen Yazıcı told them that these goods were being delivered to municipalities. They loaded the goods onto vehicles said to have come from municipalities. These civil servants said “We thought the goods were being distributed to those in need by the municipalities. Müzeyyen Yazıcı told us the Deputy Provincial Director knew about these procedures”.

DENIED THE ACCUSATIONS

Müzeyyen Yazıcı and Ahmet Yazıcı denied the accusations in their statements. Ahmet Yazıcı had moved from Dilovası Municipality to the staff of İstanbul Bayrampaşa Municipality. They argued that they had given the goods to municipalities.

However, the remand decision stated: “She served as Director of the Movables and Liquidation Branch, showed goods subject to confiscation as destroyed and unlawfully removed them from the warehouse, stored them in the warehouse belonging to suspect Ahmet Yazıcı and put them on the market, and criminal goods were found in her residence during the judicial search…”

In her questioning at the Magistrates’ Court, Müzeyyen Yazıcı made a highly critical statement and said “I handed the incoming goods to the AK Party organisation’s social affairs. These were sent to municipalities through official correspondence”. The fact that goods seized by the state were handed to the AK Party organisation points to another major scandal.

Mehmet Yılmaz had claimed he had not spoken with his aunt Müzeyyen Yazıcı for 30 years and had said that “necessary action would be taken” regarding the investigation.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Yetenekli Müzeyyen: ‘AKP’ye teslim ettim’, published in BirGün newspaper on November 14, 2025.