Image created by Arzu Geybullayeva, using Canva Pro.
The deal was signed in January 2023, but the story of Azerbaijan-linked Pasha Holding’s investment in the Mandarin Oriental Bodrum luxury resort on Turkey’s Aegean coast resurfaced in July 2025, when its name was added to the resort’s signage. Pasha Holdings’ shareholders include Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s daughters Arzu and Leyla Aliyeva, and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva’s father, Arif Pashayev.
When independent Azerbaijani news outlets first covered the new venture, the reports said only that the holding had purchased a 50 percent stake in the hotel. Now, multiple Turkish outlets are reporting that Pasha Holding acquired the stake for approximately EUR 500 million (nearly USD 580 million), but this price has not been confirmed in any public filing. According to resort owner Vedat Aşçı, the agreed amount was “far more modest,” though in an interview with Forbes Türkiye he declined to elaborate.
Not-so-modest prices
On paper, the deal reads like a straightforward real estate transaction in one of Turkey’s elite vacation destinations. But “straightforward” rarely applies when a ruling family-linked business appears in the news — especially when that family has been central to international investigations into money laundering, corruption, and the accumulation of offshore wealth. The Aliyev name has been mentioned in the Panama Papers, Daphne Project, Azerbaijan Laundromat, and Pandora Papers.
It is also difficult to speak of “modesty” when describing the Mandarin Oriental Bodrum’s rates. Spread across 600 acres with 2.5 kilometers of private coastline and three bays, the resort’s cheapest room starts at EUR 1,190 (USD 1,380) per night. A sea-view room costs roughly double; apartments are in the same bracket. The cheapest suite and entry-level villa both start around EUR 4,000 (close to USD 4,700) per night, according to the resort’s website and archived listings. Prices vary seasonally, with property purchase listings running into the millions on the luxury real estate sites reviewed by Global Voices.
Founded in 2006, Pasha Holding has grown into one of Azerbaijan’s most influential conglomerates, with operations spanning Turkey and Georgia. The organization is involved in a diversity of sectors, including “banking, insurance, construction, IT, property development, and tourism.” Investigations by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) describe the group as operating in a quasi-monopolistic environment, enabled by state favoritism that facilitates privileged access to markets and contracts.
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Pattern of operation
The Aliyev family’s property acquisitions abroad are well documented. In 2021, the Pandora Papers revealed their purchase of nearly USD 700 million in London real estate through shell companies. In 2010, the Washington Post reported that Aliyev’s three children — then aged 13 to 24 — acquired Dubai properties worth USD 75 million. In 2012, the OCCRP found that Arzu Aliyeva owned a EUR one million (close to USD 1,160,000) villa in Karlovy Vary via a Prague-based company, while Arif Pashayev owned additional Czech properties.
The same year, Azerbaijan’s parliament voted to restrict public access to company ownership data, a move widely interpreted as an effort to shield ruling elite interests from scrutiny. Subsequent projects — the Daphne Project in 2018 and Proyekt Media in 2019 — linked the family to luxury hotels in Dubai and residences in Russia.
From Moscow to London to the French Riviera, the Aliyev family demonstrates a consistent pattern: converting opaque, hydrocarbon-derived wealth into high-prestige, low-scrutiny assets abroad, with the Bodrum deal fitting squarely within this trajectory.
Complicit behavior
Official records show that in 2022, PD Turizm ve Gayrimenkul Yatırım A.Ş. (PD Tourism and Real Estate Investment Inc.) was granted permission to acquire shares in Asta Cennetköy Turizm ve İşletmecilik A.Ş. (Asta Cennetköy Tourism and Management Inc.), part of Astaş Holding. PD Turizm is linked to Pasha Holding via Vugar Mustafayev, its then-chairman who served as director of Pasha Holding Türkiye until 2023, as well as through Hikmet Cenk Eynehan, CEO of Pasha Bank Türkiye, who sits on PD Turizm’s board.
When the stake acquisition closed in early 2023, Astaş described it as a “strategic partnership” to bring in foreign capital and set a model for similar deals. Pasha Holding CEO Jalal Gasimov called Turkey a “core market” for its long-term tourism and real estate strategy.
More than merely a financial transaction, the Bodrum investment is a case study in how authoritarian wealth moves: from hydrocarbons to holding companies, through offshore conduits, into luxury assets. The resort’s exclusivity and private jet-friendly location insulate it from public scrutiny while amplifying prestige.
Transparency International ranks Turkey among five countries where real estate registers are shielded from public view and “transactions can take place without the involvement of a professional subject to anti-money-laundering obligations.” Such systemic gaps make high-end resorts like Mandarin Oriental Bodrum ideal endpoints for untraceable capital.
