Not long ago, the Baspinar family factory, located in Turkey near Syria, was praised on state TV as a model of entrepreneurship. The company, one of the country's largest suppliers of roasted peanuts, was about to start exporting peanut oil to Germany. Now the lights are off, the machinery's silent, and most workers have been sent home. The company's fortunes turned after rogue elements in the army tried and failed to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a July 15 coup attempt. That led to a nationwide dragnet for suspected sympathizers of the reclusive cleric Fethullah Gulen, who was blamed by the government for the attempted coup. In October, after pushing through antiterrorism laws, the government took over the Baspinar company. Now Enes Baspinar, the company's 41-year-old former general director, and his co-owners are among the tens of thousands of Turks who have had their assets seized by the government or been jailed or fired in the hunt for enemies of the state.
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