Sabancı Holding Chairman Late Sakip Sabancı was commemorated with a ceremony held at his tomb at the 5th anniversary of his death.
The ceremony held at the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery was attended by Sakip Sabancı's wife Turkan Sabancı, daughter Sevil Sabancı, Erol Sabancı, Sabancı Holding CEO Ahmet Dorduncu, Akbank Chairman Suzan Sabancı Dincer, Sabancı Holding Retail Group President Haluk Dincer, businessmen Yilmaz Ulusoy, Huseyin Bayraktar, Nezih Erdem, Erdogan Demiroren, Ibrahim Kefeli, and the Senior Executives of the Sabancı Group.
In his speech at the ceremony, Sabancı Holding CEO Ahmet Dorduncu said: "During the last five years we have done our best to deserve his commendation by committing to the values he bequeathed to us. As the economic turmoil becomes a current issue in our country like anywhere worldwide for some time now, what Sakip Bey had recommended and taught us gains much more importance in such tough days. The crisis we have been facing changes all the equilibriums. Now all the clichés and rules are being rewritten. Everybody reflects on how he/she will keep existing in the reshaped economic environment. Yet, Sakip Bey showed us the way thereof many years ago in his book ‘Para Basarinin Mukafatidir' (Money is the Reward of Success), where he wrote: ‘The world is in a continuous process of state of change. Change means ‘opportunity'. Change means ‘new business possibilities'. In a changing society, in a developing economy, those who see the change, who can act as pioneers in innovations will always succeed.' We will try to read the change correctly, and seek the way out of the current troubled period in ‘working and producing', as underscored by Sakip Bey."
"What he said in an interview he gave in the year 2001, where our country was suffering similar economic hardships, are so applicable and valid at the present time that I cannot neglect to recall them. In that interview he said: ‘The country is ours, we will cure it. Everybody will work more efficiently compared to the past. The magical word is efficiency. Production is too important.' ‘The mighty Turkey will come into existence in the long run, and Sabancı will take its place in such a Turkey. We will keep going. Turkey has no other choice.' Those words of Sakip Bey represent our status as the Sabancı Group in this country today as well. We all will go on working each day in awareness of the fact that what we should do to keep his memory alive is to improve our national economy and social living," added Dorduncu.