Turkish Industrial Firm’s Expansion into Bosnian Media Suggests Political Influence

On 20 Decem­ber 2023, DW report­ed that Cen­giz Hold­ing, a sig­nif­i­cant Turk­ish con­struc­tion and min­ing firm close­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Pres­i­dent Erdo­gan’s gov­ern­ment, has expand­ed its oper­a­tions into Bosn­ian media, sug­gest­ing polit­i­cal moti­va­tions. The com­pa­ny, under CEO Mehmet Cen­giz, has invest­ed in Simurg Media, man­ag­ing two Bosn­ian media out­lets, Fak­tor and STAV. This move into media, par­tic­u­lar­ly tar­get­ing the Bosni­ak pop­u­la­tion, aligns with Cen­giz Hold­ing’s his­to­ry of secur­ing large-scale con­tracts and its involve­ment in con­tro­ver­sies includ­ing import­ing sanc­tioned goods and threats to media pro­fes­sion­als. The com­pa­ny’s media invest­ment, seen as polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed due to its lack of prof­it poten­tial, coin­cides with its acqui­si­tion of sub­stan­tial ten­ders in Bosnia, exceed­ing €1 bil­lion over 11 years. Observers note the align­ment of STAV’s report­ing with the SDA par­ty and Erdo­gan, indi­cat­ing a strat­e­gy beyond busi­ness, poten­tial­ly for exert­ing polit­i­cal influ­ence in Bosnia.