BY ABDURRAHMAN YILDIRIM
SABAH- Despite his health problems, Sakip Sabanci, who passed away this weekend, managed to live out the full Turkish average lifespan to die at the age of 71. His high school years were unlucky as he suffered from severe pneumonia for three years running and consequently had to leave school. He also suffered from heart rheumatism as a result of severe pneumonia and had to have two operations. One of his children was born handicapped because Sabanci married a close relative. This led him to be sensitive to the handicapped and spearhead projects to help them. But his charity didn’t end there. The number of schools, dormitories and hospitals he built numbered over 120. He turned his house into a museum and wrote about 15 books.
Sabanci’s companies are joint ventures with 17 leading world companies. He took the group from being a regional firm to make it one of Turkey’s two largest groups. Spreading the group’s wings to four continents with foreign partnerships, over 15 factories, about 75 firms, revenues of over $10 billion and about 40,000 employers, Sabanci became a world industrialist. He did and said things which were unusual. He praised both production and industrialists, and his philosophy was ‘production, production and production.’ Despite his health problems, he lived, let live and became an inspiration.