He is one of the most successful and popular names in the world of business.... Thanks to his characteristics, he is respected and admired not only in Turkey but also throughout the world... 
This is why he has been honored with the Spanish Royal Order of Merit, one of the most important orders given by the Spanish government.... 
Undoubtfully the magic word here is “success”. There are two more important words to describe Zeynel Abidin Erdem: Righteousness and fairness....

We are now at Erdem Holding with the aim of getting to know Zeynel Abidin Erdem more closely and to talk about matters like the economy, politics, foreign relations and about his private life. Dr. Zeynel Abidin Erdem answered our questions without attempting to mask his pride and excitement:

“Now I feel myself like a missioner. In this mission we targeted the nations which have a friendly attitude towards Turkey. Since Mr. Ozal’s visit, Spain has given full support in relation to the integration of Turkey into Europe. This mutual dialogue was also pursued by Mr. Demirel, and by Mr. Mesut Yılmaz during his prime ministry. In the 1980’s, the import ratio of Turkey from Spain reached to forty million dollars whereas the export ratio was approximately seventy million dollars. Today our import volume approaches two billion dollars, and our export exceeds one billion dollars. During our struggle to prevent terrorism in the Southeastern region of Turkey, the period in which military embargoes had been imposed and no country supplied us aircrafts for transport, Spain provided us CASAs. While European countries were imposing embargoes on us fictionally stating that “the human rights were violated”, Spain ensured production of these planes in Turkey with low credit interest rates covering a term of 37 years. Spain has been supporting us right from the very beginning in our struggle to stop the terrorist attacks launched by PKK, and in Europe assisting us to become a full member of European Union in all aspects. After U.S.A, Spain has been the second country to strive to get us admitted in the European Union. Thus, Spain should be considered as our indispensable friend.”

There are many things to be discussed with a businessman in a country where the agenda changes almost every minute. But before that, I would like to find out about his experiences in the past and the milestones of the holding, which is going to celebrate its 40th year in 2005: “In 1965, we started our business in Istanbul with a solid capital together with a very professional friend of the family. By means of analysing the commercial functions which may progress in Turkey, we conducted a study about what should be produced, imported, exported, sold and distributed. First with sewed and ready-made textile products, we made a jump start in the industry” says Mr. Erdem. What happened three years after the business started became a turning point for the company. The amount of 100-150 items of textile products purchased daily from a factory increased by 10-15 percent. After six months Mr. Erdem became suspicious and carried out an investigation: He discovered that this increase was a false situation resulting from the employees’ mistake of that factory! For the sake of honesty and with the advice he took from his family, he asked the owner of the factory for an appointment and managed to get one, although a bit later than he expected. Let’s hear the rest of the story from Mr. Erdem:

“I took an envelope out of my pocket and said, “ the amount of money may be insignificant to you, but this is the surplus in return for your goods the invoice of which has not been issued. This is not the money that I deserved so I give back this amount to you. Do not have misconceptions about this. Your personnel were mistakenly sending the goods to us rather than somewhere else.” Later on he invited me again. He wanted to learn why I gave the money back. When I explained him that I had done so in the name of my beliefs, principles and morality, he replied “From now on, you are going to distribute the whole shares, from which approximately five percent had been allocated to you up to now, throughout Turkey and you are will be my general distributor.” “I went in to the factory on a fine Saturday as a man who was distributing five percent of the whole production, and two hours later I walked out as the man who will distribute hundred percent of the production.”

Zeynel Abidin Erdem does not reveal the name of this businessman, with this story he rather wants to recommend younger people that one of the priorities in peoples’ lives should be morality and the other should be being hardworking.

.....And the beginning of the 1970’s when hard times were faced. Nevetheless, starting the import of semi-manufactured goods of chemical raw materials strengthened the position of the company within the domestic market. Even the number of the workers increased to 502. In 1974, Turkey suffered a great crisis. In those years, double payment was being made for convertible deposits in Turkish lira. This time, the volume of business increased four fold:

“Due to the reason that we have not acted against the principles of the foreign companies we made business with, they sent goods without demanding payment in advance. We made one payment instead of two while the rest of the traders in Istanbul made two payments instead of one. Thus we managed to purchase goods cheaper compared to our competitors. When I was a child, we used to live at the border region of the country; my family, which exported to the Middle Eastern peninsula, were engaged in trade for more than hundred years. Trade business passed from father to son, so I became friends with the children of people, businessmen and politicians whom my father had business relations with. We had traded one hundred and twenty one items of goods to the Middle East. We have exported everything you can imagine: from lavatory bowls, brooms, turncocks, key rings, nails, pliers, adzes, carts, shovels to pickaxes.”

......And by the end of 1970’s, there were political crises. The situation of Turkey before the revolution....People who were not able to cope with this chaos atmosphere took great efforts to liquidate their business and leave Turkey....

Erdem Holding managed to change this negative atmosphere into a positive one; it continued to grow.With great courage and determination it took the place of the ones who left the country. Moreover, it took over import demands left off by corporations out of business. The more turnover increased, the more profit was made; the more the brand became known, the more the demands increased. By the year 1980, the holding achieved to have six companies; distribution, transport, commerce, import, accounting, customs team, packaging team and every single department was set as necessary.

With the elections, Turgut Ozal’s party became the ruling party. There were no obstacles before increasing the endorsement twenty fold. Zeynel Abidin Erdem tells of an interesting experience from those days:

“My family has not chosen a life style or attitude of mind in which religious factors are dominant. However, we do not choose to benefit from interests and daily interest rates. As the leader of the family in those days, I did not prefer to make use of those kind of transactions. I preferred to earn money through production and trading. But as a result of this, people who made fictitious export on paper made us become diminished, even disappear in a very short period of time. It was the year of 1986, I went to the bank to withdraw two hundred thousand Turkish liras. I saw a few young men with blue bags waiting in queue. They seemed to be very respected and acted in a bossy manner; so I was behind them waiting in the queue. One of the officers said, “Mr. Erdem, please come this way. They are withdrawing a big amount of money.” They withdrew eighty three million Turkish liras and it was a very big amount in those days. I said, “Let me not wait here because these people are very esteemed and no one renders me service just for two hundred thousand Turkish liras.” The manager of the bank did not accept it and invited me to his room and said, “Actually, you are the esteemed person not they are. These people are fictitious exporters who make use of the defects of the government. They are temporary customers but you are the permanent customer.” I was very sure that acting in the right way was the real virtue and its proof was the upbringing tradition of my family. However what I saw was different. And today these people do not exist. They completely disappeared because they squandered the money in the course of time which they had earned illegally and were put in jail but Erdem Holding has thirteen companies. It has increased its endorsement incredibly and employed thousands of people and continued to grow.

According to Mr. Erdem, the last crisis occurred again because of the same mistakes of the government. The return of the labour has been ignored and priority has been given to the return of the rent. Government who has supported the stock exchange with uncovered bills has lost its real sector. Besides, I am curious about the answer of this question: Should the business world be blamed for the crisis to a certain extent? Erdem thinks that it should not be. Because government did not intervene with the banks who went to bankruptcy and did not remove people from office who had made use of the money resources; even they gave support to these banks. What about the right of objection? He says that they have not raised their objection properly.

Today Zeynel Abidin Erdem has hopes for future. Because there is only one ruling party and AK Party does his best in order to save time which has been wasted by the previous governments. Mr. Erdem says, “I hope that I would not be ashamed from what I have said. We have elected a very appropriate team. They have a consensus within the structure of their governing style” and he makes this commend, “I am hopeful because of three things; first this team is young, second this is an insistent team and third they want to be a stable ruling party in the long run. Turkish electorates can not be deluded. This party has decreased the votes of DYP to 1.5. It has defeated ANAP and DYP and removed MHP. People who have seen this result must keep their promises. I have no doubt that AK Party will be advantageous for Turkey by itself. Non-governmental organizations have made fifty thousand kilometres. Fifteen European countries have been visited. This is the first time something like this has happened. The journeys which Tayyip Erdogan has made in fifteen days as of the death of Mr. Ozal, were as much as the journeys made by the governments after Turgut Ozal’s death. Previous governments ignored the dialogue with other countries. Turkey has suffered from this mistake. However, AK Party has taken up the matter of European Union membership seriously and did his very best until the 12th of December. We have implicit faith in our new government. On the other side, under the condition that the devotion to the integrity of Turkish Nation, secular Republic, principles and revolutions of Ataturk is threatened, it should be known that we will protest our critiques loudly.”

At the same time, Zeynel Abidin Erdem is the honorary consulate general of Sudan. I would like to learn about this side of his life and his activities regarding this post. He became very happy when being asked such a question which has never been asked up to now. He says, “When you manage to incite the investments which have to be done in Sudan by Turkey, it means that you meet the requirements of being a honorary consulate.” Before Mr. Erdem has been honoured with this post, approximately two hundred people have visited Sudan every year. Today this number has increased to ten thousand people. He says that Sudan is not a country of terrorism as it is supposed and propagandized and it is necessary to create many alternatives to make use of the potential of Sudan. He gives an example: “For example U.S.A is an ally of Turkey and by means of this, we may have the chance of carrying our service group, working capabilities and production oriented investments to this country. “ He also explains the reason of accepting the consulate of this country which he visits at least three times a year: “If a statesman of a country welcomes a Turkish citizen visiting their country in this way, I will not only accept to be their honorary consulate, but also agree to render other services: I have accepted the offer of the president with pleasure who loves and respects my country and nation and saying “I am the President of Sudan but I can not walk in front of an Ottoman. The Ottomans are my ancestors; I am the child of a society who has lived in prosperity during the reign of the Ottoman Empire”.

There are still many things to talk with Zeynel Abidin Erdem but I would like to put an end to the problems of Turkey and learn some about the interesting and sociable character of him. For example, I would like to learn whether he has problems or conflicts and the same characteristic behaviour with his twin Nezih Erdem and how they share their business....

Erdem family has nine children. Three boys and six girls. He says, “We are a prosperous family. I have six brothers in laws.” He says that Nezih Erdem is more sociable than himself and continues: “We are twins so there are not many conflicts between us. Each of us is dealing with our own duty. We do not intervene in each other’s field, but on the other side we adhere to the controlling chain seriously. Currently, he takes me as his elder brother and leader. I have the authority. Due to this reason, no conflicts arise between us. ” Zeynel Abidin Erdem says that even their tastes are the same from necktie, watch to gun. He tells of a memory of his: “One day I bought a shirt and necktie for Nezih on his birthday. When I came home, I saw the same package on bed. I thought that he did not like my present or it was not the right size for him. I called him. I told him that he had sent the present back. He told me that I had sent the present back. We were amazed and opened both packages. When we opened them, we realized that we had bought the same things for each other; it was a striped shirt with white sleeves and a dark red necktie. We are that much the same.” Zeynel Abidin Erdem has two children. He mentions them as the greatest values in his life. As their education has not been completed, they are not authorized at the holding but two sons of Nezih Erdem participate to the decisions as members of board of directors: “When they do not accept a decision which we accept, we respect them because they should not only see the results of their success but also the results of their mistakes. Otherwise, you can not make them gain experience. They should make mistakes and lose. They should strive hard and success. Only in this way, they may have a promising future. Today, I immediately put into practise or discuss whatever Fatih and Gokhan say.”

What about holiday plans? What is the way of getting rid of the weariness of a whole year? Unfortunately the answer of this question is also related to the unstable economy of Turkey: “I have holiday plans but I have never put them in practice. Even when I have the chance, it becomes an incomplete attempt. Because Turkey is a country of surprises. If I had the chance of making trade in England or Germany, I would make a very precise plan of three years. If there is a possibility of losing sixty percent of my savings of forty years in a very small struggle like other people in Turkey and being exposed to an unfair loss, ,it means that I do not deserve having holiday. You are subject to Turkish lira and its value which can not be protected. What could you do? Every day, in panic, I think of the amount which I will lose due to the increase in dollars or gain due to the decrease in dollars in the evening related to the goods which I sell in Turkish liras. This situation makes me furious. This is the situation.”