Worker beaten to death in front of the Çalık Holding, his son speaks out: They rely on the power behind them

Melisa Ay

A worker who demanded his compensation from the labour- hostile Çalık Holding was murdered.

Erol Eğrek, 49, who worked at the Holding's factory in Turkmenistan, had been struggling for compensation for 10 years. Eğrek, who had a compensation claim of 7 million TL from Çalık Holding, repeatedly tried to make his voice heard. Eğrek won all the compensation lawsuits he filed in this process, but his rightful compensation was not paid.

Erol Eğrek, who went to the Çalık Holding building in Şişli, İstanbul yesterday to negotiate for his compensation, was not allowed into the building. Tension broke out between Eğrek and the building security and bodyguards and Eğrek was prevented from entering the building.

Before that, Eğrek wanted to make his voice heard for the last time with a video and said, “I have not been able to get my compensation for 10 years. I have been struggling for my rights. Let them give me my compensation rights, I have no other request.”

Eğrek, who held a firearm to his head in front of the building, was beaten by 10 people. 10 people surrounded Eğrek, who was seeking his rights, and beat him to death. The family argues that Eğrek's death occurred in the holding building, not in the hospital.

According to the family, the police teams at the scene told the paramedics that Eğrek had collapsed during the beating. After being beaten, Eğrek was taken to Okmeydanı Cemil Taşçıoğlu State Hospital and his lifeless body was sent to the Forensic Medicine Institute.

HE WORKED FOR MANY YEARS UNDER ÇALIK

Eğrek started working at GAP Güneydoğu Tekstil under Çalık in 1997. He worked in the ring spinning department of the factory as an electrical-electronic maintenance supervisor for five years. In 2003, Eğrek travelled to Turkmenistan and started to work in the field of electro-mechanics at the holding's Balkan Weaving Factory and Serdar İplik in the cities of Ashgabat and Kipchak. Afterwards, Eğrek worked as an electrical supervisor at the Turkmenbashi construction sites of Belda Construction in Turkmenistan.

Eğrek also worked at COTAM, which is known to have close relations with Çalık. He returned to Turkey and continued working, writing on his CV that he “specialised in ISO audits, weak current systems, automation solutions and progress payment preparation”.

Eğrek demanded his receivables for his 10 years of labour and took legal action on several occasions on different dates for compensation. According to the documents Eğrek shared before his murder, the holding company argued that they could not be held directly responsible for the claims. Eğrek had previously claimed that some of the executives were “members of the Gülen sect” and that they had put pressure and mobbing on him and had won the defamation lawsuit filed against these allegations.

"THEY STOLE MY FATHER'S LIFE, OUR DREAMS"

Yasin Eğrek, one of Erol Eğrek's 4 children, told BirGün what happened. Explaining that he fought his father's struggle alone. Eğrek said: “My father has a debt for 13 years. He has been struggling for 13 years, he has never been able to make his voice heard. He repeatedly told us “No one hears my voice”. He went there without any bad intentions. He would not shoot himself with the gun in his hand. My father was a very intelligent, kind-hearted person. He was very merciful” he said.

Yasin Eğrek summarised the process of demanding his rights from Çalık Holding as follows: “We have been trying for more than 10 years. We won the case, but they didn't give it to us. Is the state behind them? Who is behind them? Although we won the case, they did not give us our compensation. He was in a financially troubled situation. If my father hadn't died, we would have had a wedding. We were going to have my brother's wedding in the summer. They stole our dreams from us.”

“IT IS NOT TRUE THAT HE DIED IN THE HOSPITAL”

Yasin Eğrek, who signed his father's death certificate, said: “My father was beaten to death. It is not true that he died in the hospital as it is written in the news. They beat him in front of the building and then took him inside, there is no footage from inside. We saw it ourselves. His face, neck, shoulder... He was covered in bruises. There were a lot of wounds, bruises, bruises, there were marks of beating” he said.

Eğrek also explained the defamation case against his father and said: “The reason for my father's dismissal was the pressure he was under. He was dismissed because he said that the managers were FETÖ members. But he was sued for slandering these managers who mobbed him. My father won this case too. My father has won all the lawsuits he has filed or sued until today. Although he won, he did not receive his compensation. The defence of the lawyers that a payment has been made is also untrue. We have not received any payment. They rely on the power behind them. We cannot tell our problems to judges and prosecutors. They did not even give us the case we won.”

Finally, Yasin Eğrek made the following call for his sister, brother and twin brother: “Everyone who reads and sees this should make our voices heard wherever they can for my father. They will not be able to silence us. He raised his voice for us, sacrificed himself for us. No one would want it to be like this.”

Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled Çalık Holding'de öldürülen işçi Erol Eğrek'in oğlu konuştu: Arkalarındaki güce güveniyorlar, published in BirGün newspaper on May 10, 2025.