Mina Basaran was in the UAE with seven friends to celebrate her hen party. Instagram @minabasaran
Mina Basaran was in the UAE with seven friends to celebrate her hen party. Instagram @minabasaran
Mina Basaran was in the UAE with seven friends to celebrate her hen party. Instagram @minabasaran
Mina Basaran was in the UAE with seven friends to celebrate her hen party. Instagram @minabasaran

Who was Mina Basaran, the Turkish bride whose Sharjah-Istanbul plane crashed?


Liz Cookman
  • English
  • Arabic

Wealthy Turkish socialite and business heir Mina Basaran, 28, and her seven friends were killed on Sunday when a private plane travelling from Sharjah to Istanbul crashed in Iran.

Three female crew members were also killed in the accident.

The trip to the UAE was a hen party to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Ms Basaran to Murat Gezer, owner of print shop Metprint Baski Sistemler. According to Turkish media, they were engaged in October at Istanbul’s Soho House and were due to be married on April 14 at Ciragan Sarayi, a five-star hotel on the Bosphorus that is a former Ottoman palace.

On Monday morning, the website of Metprint Baski Sistemler went down due to heavy traffic.

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Read more:

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Bombardier 604: Sharjah crash private jet model has relatively strong safety record

World's safest airlines 2018 revealed

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Turkey’s Transport Ministry said the plane that went down in south-west Iran belonged to a company named Basaran Holding, the private holding company of Turkish businessman Huseyin Basaran, Mina's father.

Mr Basaran is a former deputy chairman of Trabzonspor football club, and his company has invested in many sectors including yachting, finance, construction, tourism, aviation, cement and energy.

His empire started with a hazelnut business in Trabzon in north-eastern Turkey.

Ms Basaran, the eldest of two children and the only daughter, was part of the company’s board of managers and reportedly in line to run the business.

Also on board was Liana Hananel, founder of clothing brand Lily and Rose, a luxury designer swimwear brand, Zeynep Coskun, Jasmin Baruh Siloni, Asli Izmirli, Ayse And, Sinem Akay and Burcu Urfali.

Akay studied fashion in Italy and worked in the fashion and clothing sector.

Ms Urfali also worked in fashion, having studied at Istanbul Technical University and later in New York. She started her own fashion label in 2015 called Bug Uniform, making bespoke work uniforms.

Ms Siloni and Ms Izmir were jewellery designers, and the latter was also the owner of Izmir Jewellery.

Ms Coskun was the daughter of Orhan Coskun, the owner of the Toyota Akkoyunlu Company in Bursa and one of Ms Basaran's closest friends.

Ms And also studied in New York and was working as a psychologist in Turkey.

Ms Basaran posted images of her and her friends on the trip to Instagram profile, which, following the sad news, jumped from 58,000 followers to over 86,700 in a few hours. The account has now been set to private.

The last photo on her Instagram account showed the women at the One and Only Royal Mirage luxury hotel in Dubai.

Wealthy Turkish socialite Mina Basaran and her seven friends were killed when their private plane crashed in Iran. Instagram @minabasaran
Wealthy Turkish socialite Mina Basaran and her seven friends were killed when their private plane crashed in Iran. Instagram @minabasaran

Mina Towers, one of Istanbul’s biggest construction projects, was being handled by Mr Basaran's company and was named after his daughter.

Ms Basaran graduated from Koc University Business Administration Department and completed a master's degree in London. She has also appeared in fashion magazines such as Vogue Turkey.

According to Hurriyet Daily News, Kerem Kinik, the head of the Turkish Red Crescent, said on Twitter on March 11 that search and rescue teams were deployed to the area of the incident

A website associated with Iranian state TV said local villagers in the Zagros Mountains had reached the site and found 11 badly burned bodies in the wreckage. He said DNA tests would be needed to identify the dead.

Mia Man’s tips for fermentation

- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut

- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.

- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.

- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.

 

if you go

The flights

Air Astana flies direct from Dubai to Almaty from Dh2,440 per person return, and to Astana (via Almaty) from Dh2,930 return, both including taxes. 

The hotels

Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Almaty cost from Dh1,944 per night including taxes; and in Astana the new Ritz-Carlton Astana (www.marriott) costs from Dh1,325; alternatively, the new St Regis Astana costs from Dh1,458 per night including taxes. 

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While you're here
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The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE