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71-year-old tycoon files for divorce from 17-year-old bride
The story made newspaper and tabloid headlines when Toprak married Tağızade on July 18, 2009, at one of the businessman's summer homes in Kuşadası. Toprak's new wife was required to present the authorities with written permission from her parents as she was not legally allowed to wed of her own accord as a minor. The marriage was reportedly a surprise to Toprak's family, especially to his ex-wife Ayşe Toprak, the mother of 10 of his 12 children.
Trouble was on the horizon, though, and before long, the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) seized 20 of his companies.
In February, Halis Toprak said he regretted marrying Tağızade because the marriage had brought shame to his name. “Nazlıcan’s family said: ‘We chose you [Halis Toprak] because you had planes, helicopters and yachts. They are all gone. You are worse than us now’,” he added.
According to news reports, Tağızade attempted suicide in early April by taking pills. She was rushed to İstinye State Hospital, where her stomach was pumped, and was discharged. But controversy continued to swirl around the marriage with allegations of extortion and sexual perversion.
After less than a year of marriage, it appears that the businessman has had enough. Speaking outside the Sarıyer Family Court on Tuesday Toprak’s lawyer, Turgut Tavşanoğlu, said the businessman had filed for divorce. “We’ve opened a divorce case against Nazlıcan Toprak. Along with the divorce case, we filed a criminal complaint with the state prosecutor’s office due to the systematic threats, insults, blackmail and similar acts that have been carried out against Halis Toprak,” he said, noting that they would request that the court issue a restraining order to keep Tağızade and her family away from Toprak’s home.
Tavşanoğlu said that when the TMSF seized Toprak’s companies, it immediately created tension between him and his young wife. “She started fights every day, asking her husband, ‘What can you give me?’ They were living separately in the same home,” he claimed.
Responding sharply to a question regarding allegations that Toprak mistreated his wife and did not feed her, Tavşanoğlu said: “From the first day of the marriage, we can document TL 5,000 in credit card expenditures each month [by Tağızade]. In addition, through threats and blackmail, he was forced to buy her gold necklaces and bracelets worth around TL 50,000 and also a vehicle worth TL 35,000 for her mother, Şehrinaz Tağızade. How is it that this woman has been left hungry? Could such a thing be?”
The lawyer also denied allegations that Toprak had made perverted demands of his wife in the bedroom. “Such things were never in question. We were even to ashamed to respond to such allegations in the divorce petition; if she brings it up, we’ll address it,” he said. Toprak’s attorney added that they had demanded TL 50,000 from Tağızade in emotional damages over an interview given to the Vatan daily and that the divorce filing included a request for another TL 100,000 in emotional damages for the “trauma Halis Toprak has been subjected to and the rape of his personal rights” throughout the course of the marriage and now divorce proceedings.
“This wasn’t a wise marriage; that’s become clear,” he said.
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