Cuneyd Zapsu

Their business relation with the Saudi entrepreneur Yasin Kadi brought the Zapsu brothers some attention by the Turkish authorities, since Kadi was on the terror list of the United Nations (UN).[8] Cüneyd Zapsu and his mother also donated an amount of 300'000$ to the charity Mufaqaf in 1990s, which is closely related to Yasin Kadi and has been classified as to be connected to Al Qaeda by the United States following the attack on the 11 September 2001 on the Twin Towers in New York.[10] But according to Forbes, Aziz Zapsu stated that there have been no irregularities in their business relations and also Guy Martin, the lawyer of Yasin Kadi stated that no UN sanctions were breached with the transactions in question.[8]

In 2001, he resigned from his businesses and became a founding member of the AKP. He never was a candidate to parliament, but an important adviser to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan[4] and often also translator in meetings Erdoğan held with western politicians.[3] In 2006 he accompanied Erdoğan to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos[11] of which he is also a member.[1] In 2003 he supported a political solution to the conflict towards the conflict of Cyprus and advised the Kurdish rebels to demand their rights in a political way as the laws in 2003 were much better than before.[12]

He resigned an advisor to Erdogan in 2008 and founded the Cuneyd Zapsu Consultancy Inc. which serves as an advisor to various global and Turkish enterprises. He has also returned to the hazelnut processor and exporter Balsu.[1] He serves as a senior advisor to Coca-Cola since 2012 and in May 2017, he was appointed a member of the board to the company which builds the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant.[13] He is also a member of the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSAID)[1] and serves as a Member of the Executive Committee for the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council (INC) since 2007.[14]