Turkish businessman Ömer Erol (47), who devoted his life to charitable activities, passed away Sunday night in South Africa from a heart attack. Erol was diabetic. Erol moved to Johannesburg in 2006 and operated a textile store there. Speaking to Today’s Zaman on Monday, Ömer Erol’s close friend Orhan Şeker said they moved together to the African country. “We were friends for 25 years. He was very enthusiastic about charities. Wherever he saw any charitable activity, Erol was the first to sign up,” Şeker said.

Global Capital Management Ltd., a buyout unit of Global Investment House of Kuwait, acquired 80 percent of Turkey’s Bicakcilar Tibbi Cihazlar AS, a medical equipment manufacturer, Global said.

Bicakcilar, based in Istanbul, is the second-biggest maker of catheters in Europe and exports its products to more than 70 countries, Global Investment House, a Kuwaiti investment company, said in an e-mailed statement today. Financial details of the agreement weren’t provided.

Turkey’s growing health-care industry has attracted investors including Abraaj Capital Ltd., the Middle East’s biggest private-equity firm, which bought 54 percent of hospital operator Acibadem Saglik Hizmetleri & Ticaret AS for about $606 million in 2007 and 2008. Carlyle Group, the world’s No. 2 private-equity firm, bought 40 percent of hospital operator Medical Park Saglik Grubu AS for an undisclosed price in 2009.

Universal Saglik Yatirimlari Holding AS, a Turkish chain of 18 hospitals, will complete the sale of a stake of unspecified size within a month, according to Daruma Corporate Finance, which is advising on the transaction.Source: Bloomberg

Director General of Turkey's national air carrier Turkish Airlines, or THY, Temel Kotil said Wednesday that following flights to Los Angeles in March, 2011, they would begin flights to US cities of Houston, Miami, Boston and Detroit either in 2012 or in 2013.
 
In an exclusive interview with the Anatolia news agency, Kotil said that THY's flights to Washington, D.C., which began last November, were very important for them.

It is not only the Turks who arrive in Washington, D.C.. People from the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia come to Washington, D.C. by THY. We carry a high number of passengers from Washington, D.C. to Africa. We are pleased with the occupancy rates for flights from Washington, D.C., Kotil said.

Fort Lee Federal Savings Bank's second office is opening in Clifton, New Jersey. Operating in Fort Lee, New Jersey for the past ten years, the Fort Lee Federal Savings Bank will have the official opening of its three story building on Main Avenue, Clifton within the following days. The Bank is also preparing to transfer its first office to a new building they bought in Fort Lee. Yasemin Koyunoglu, the only Turk owning a bank in the US, and her husband Dr. Haralambos (Bob) S. Kostakopoulos opened the doors of their new center to the Turk Avenue. Decorating their new office with nearly sixty marbling art pieces selected from the collection of marbling artist Kubilay Dincer of Turkey, the Kostakopoulos couple designed their floors with Turkish rugs. Having started their endeavor with a moderate size bank in Fort Lee ten years ago, Kostakopoulos couple says that they owe their strength in the face of economic crisis and mortgage crises to a planned and conscious strategy. The co-president of the Fort Lee Federal Savings Bank Yasemin Koyunoglu Kostakopoulos says, "What is important is not the number of banks; how much business you do. We took our steps slowly but sustainably."