# The Başaran Family, Habaş and Worker Safety

- Original post: https://www.twitter.com/i/status/2120890627919331459
- Source account: [@Degirmenci_0607](https://x.com/Degirmenci_0607)
- Source language: Turkish
- Target language: English
- Duration: 3:21
- Published: 2026-11-13
- Machine translated. Check the original before quoting.
- Canonical URL: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety
- Original-language version: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/tr/ba%C5%9Faran-ailesi-haba%C5%9F-ve-i%CC%87%C5%9F%C3%A7i-g%C3%BCvenli%C4%9Fi.md

## Transcript

[0:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety) His son, Mehmet Rüştü Başaran, his son, the boss's son, says, “Dad, we’ll expand the business, and get into steelmaking.”

[0:07](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=7) His father, Hamdi Başaran, says to Mehmet Rüştü Başaran, “Come on, what do we know about steel?”

[0:13](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=13) And he says, “Think big, Dad. We’ll learn.”

[0:17](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=17) His father objects. Then he gets sick there.

[0:23](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=23) When the boss, Hamdi Başaran, falls ill, we were in Istanbul too. I remember, we were kids, and my mother and I went to pay our respects to the boss’s wife.

[0:34](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=34) The boss’s wife lived in a waterside mansion in Istanbul.

[0:37](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=37) I'd never entered a waterside mansion. It was a very beautiful mansion, too.

[0:42](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=42) It was huge. I was amazed, thinking, “How do people live here?”

[0:46](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=46) Other workers’ relatives had also come to pay their respects at the mansion.

[0:50](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=50) She received the workers as a group. I think her name was Hacı Güllü, Hacı Güllü Başaran.

[0:55](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=55) I remember him saying this to my mother.

[0:56](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=56) I was very scared, on the other hand. My first time in a place like that.

[1:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=60) “Pray that Hamdi Başaran doesn't die. If my son takes over the job, you're done for,” he said.

[1:08](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=68) I remember that. Hamdi Başaran died, but not of that illness.

[1:13](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=73) His son, Mehmet Rüştü Başaran, persuaded his father with his ambition and had that steel mill built.

[1:19](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=79) Just a few weeks before its opening, Father Hamdi Başaran climbed onto a crane to see his works from above and died after falling from the crane into a lime pit.

[1:34](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=94) His son immediately took over the business and do you know what the first thing his son did was?

[1:41](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=101) He fired my father.

[1:45](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=105) My father, who wanted a strong union in the workplace, who cared about workplace safety, who cared about the workers' lives, saying, “We need to renew our company, make it younger.”...

[1:59](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=119) He was also old enough to retire, but he wanted to keep working.

[2:03](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=123) He thanked him. He said the company needed fresh blood.

[2:07](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=127) They needed young people. Experience? They probably didn't need experience.

[2:12](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=132) Why did they need young people? Because to the boss, they were just numbers.

[2:21](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=141) It was clear that was the case, and he set a very ambitious target.

[2:25](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=145) Well, the one who celebrated his appointment that day with wine, whiskey, and cocktails, Mehmet Rüştü Başaran, later became a member of MÜSİAD.

[2:36](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=156) And during AK Party rule, he became a regular at the AKP provincial headquarters.

[2:40](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=160) Let me show you once more. And he expanded the business.

[2:43](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=163) But behind the scenes, he also sold steel to Israel.

[2:48](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=168) “MÜSİAD member Habash sells steel to Israel,” the news report said.

[2:54](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=174) Because he had only one sacred thing. Just one sacred thing.

[2:58](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=178) And that was mo— You're making all the money in the world.

[3:03](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=183) Come on, take some precautions! Is it that hard?

[3:06](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=186) The sixth worker has died at this factory this year.

[3:10](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=190) If these barricades stood in front of the bosses, if these cops took the bosses by the arm for once…

[3:18](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/egXnbFohJvSI/en/the-ba%C5%9Faran-family-haba%C5%9F-and-worker-safety?t=198) Do we really have to go through this pain?