Kahraman Sadıkoğlu is a Turkish businessman. He owns the

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

-based Sadikoglu Group. He paid for the restoration of one of the largest yachts in the world, the ''

Savarona The MV ''Savarona'' (also sometimes M/Y, for motor yacht) is the presidential yacht of the Republic of Turkey. She was the largest in the world when launched February 28, 1931, and remains, with a length of 136 m (446 ft), one of the w ...

''. She was purchased by the Turkish government in 1938 for use as a presidential yacht by

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 Surname Law (Turkey), until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish Mareşal (Turkey), field marshal, Turkish National Movement, re ...

, but was later allowed to fall into disrepair after his death. Sadikoglu leased the vessel in 1989 from the Turkish government and invested 50 million dollars to restore its former beauty. Afterwards he rented her out for luxury cruises. The lease contract was rescinded after a media scandal in 2010 and the Turkish government took the ship back. In December 2005, Sadıkoğlu was kidnapped in the

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

i port city of

Umm Qasr Umm Qasr ( ar, أم قصر, also transliterated as ''Um-qasir'', ''Um-qasser, Um Qasr'') is a port city in southern Iraq. It stands on the canalised Khawr az-Zubayr, part of the Khawr Abd Allah estuary which leads to the Persian Gulf. It is sep ...

by terrorists, who demanded a

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

25 million ransom. He was released in February 2006 following the payment of a much smaller sum, said by his wife to be "less than $1m" and by the Turkish newspaper ''

Vatan ''Vatan'' ("Homeland" or "Motherland") is a Turkish daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers ...

'' to be $500,000.BBC NEWS , World , Middle East , Turkish businessman freed in Iraq
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Personal life

Sadıkoğlu has a son, Kemal.

References

Turkish businesspeople Turkish billionaires Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{Turkey-business-bio-stub