Businessperson, politician Cem Uzan says he will return to Turkey, take part in next election

Click to read the article in Turkish

Cem Uzan, a businessperson and politician who was granted political asylum by France 11 years ago, has said that his party will "definitely join an alliance" in the next election.

Uzan's Young Party (Genç Parti) got 7.25 percent of the votes in its first election in 2002. In 2003 and 2004, more than 200 companies, including prominent media outlets, of the Uzan family, one of the richest families of the country at the time, were seized by the government on the ground of fraud allegations.

Uzan left Turkey in 2009 and applied to France for political asylum. He has been living in Paris since then.

The Young Party could join either one of the People's Alliance of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) or the Nation's Alliance of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the İYİ (Good) Party or a third alliance, Uzan said in an interview with euronews Turkish. 

Before the family's companies were seized, the Young Party was on course to get a successful result in 2004 as its voting share had climbed to 20 percent, he claimed.

"30 to 40 billion dollars of national wealth was looted," he said, referring to the seized companies.

In 2013, Uzan was sentenced to 18 years and 5 months in prison for "embezzlement" and received a fine of 300 million US dollars. A court in France ruled that the verdict was against international law because the prosecutor and the judge were married.

When asked about when he will return to Turkey, he said, "at the right time."

On July 2, he joined the young Party's ordinary congress via video conference and read out a manifesto.

The manifesto held the government responsible for the "economic crisis" and announced projects like making the southeastern Mardin province the "Las Vegas of Turkey." (PT/VK)