Erol Aksoy, who was born in Denizli in 1946, was a name that attracted attention with his intelligence in his youth. He continued his education in America with Koç scholarships. While he was working there, he took on the position of finance coordinator at Koç Holding upon the offer of Rahmi Koç. After this experience, he returned to Türkiye and became the general manager of Garanti Bank when he was only 32 years old. With this success, he became the first banker to become a general manager at this age in Türkiye.
Aksoy, who became the head of the International Industry and Trade Bank (later known as Interbank) within the Çukurova Group in 1981, reached an important milestone in his banking career by acquiring the majority shares of İktisat Bank in 1984. He significantly expanded this local bank, which he took over from the Ergür family in Denizli.
In 1991, he stepped into the media world and founded Show TV, Türkiye's second private television channel. This initiative was followed by partnerships with Dinç Bilgin and Haldun Simavi, the owners of Sabah and Hürriyet newspapers at that time.
Aksoy, who bought Hürriyet newspaper from Haldun Simavi in 1993, launched the Cine5 channel, which used encrypted broadcast technology for the first time in Türkiye, together with Dinç Bilgin. Aksoy, who also acquired the broadcasting rights of football leagues, published the Yeni Yüzyıl newspaper with Dinç Bilgin after selling Hürriyet to Aydın Doğan in 1994.
By establishing Show Basın in 1997, he acquired Türkiye's first domestic children's channel Maxi TV and sports channels Supersport TV and Cine Spor. The effort to move the broadcasting system to digital was disrupted when the football league rights were transferred to Teleon. In 1999, he transferred the shares of Show TV, first partially and then completely, to Mehmet Emin Karamehmet.
He founded the Cine+Digital platform in 2000, but this initiative did not last long. With the economic crisis in March 2001, İktisat Bank was transferred to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF). In 2004, SDIF seized all of Aksoy's companies due to his debts from the bank. In 2006, he reached an agreement with SDIF and managed to take back Cine5 and its sister channels.
However, these channels were taken over by SDIF again in 2008 on the grounds that they did not make the promised payments. Apart from media, Erol Aksoy also operated in different sectors such as technology, energy, finance and insurance. For a while, he also bought the Sakaryaspor club and later disposed of it.
Looking at Erol Aksoy's private life, it is known that he is married to İnci Aksoy and has two children named Eda and Kerim. He also advised the then Prime Minister Turgut Özal on banking issues in the 1980s.
Erol Aksoy was born in Ankara, Türkiye in 1935.
He was born in Ankara in 1935. He graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences. He worked as a columnist in Vatan newspaper in Ankara between 1957 and 1961.
He became Ankara State Theater Artist in 1961. Later, he transferred to TRT in 1969 and served in various positions at TRT Ankara Television. During this period, he worked as the Director of Drama, Children and Culture Departments and produced and directed various programs.
He completed the BBC International Television Course in England with a first degree in drama production-direction. In 1976, he was appointed as the Manager of TRT Izmir Television. He worked in Cyprus for 6 months after he was appointed as a programmer at Kıbrıs Bayrak Television. For nearly 20 years, he wrote, produced and directed drama series such as "Şenlikgiller", "Yaşakça", "Bir Gönül Perdesi" on TRT, and hosted various programs; He held international television meetings.
He wrote the script for the 1964 movie Mor Defter.
Productions in which he took part
He took part in 19 productions in total; 12 of the most well-known are listed.
- Baba Candır (2015) — Mehmet Dede
- Bullet Wound (2003)
- Kadim Dostum (2014) — Recep Dostum
- First Kiss (2017)
- Tragedy Three (2018) — Mehmet Dede
- Yalaza (2017) — Faik Akartürk
- Wedding Association (2013) — Uncle Nazmi
- Kızkaçıran (2016) — Hulusi
- Triple Rough (2023) — Hacı Uncle
- Miracle 2: Love (2019)
- Oh Love, Where Are You? (2009)
- Horizonica (2006) — Roeland Efry
Production and imprint information was taken from TMDB.
