He was a co-founder of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey as well as the founder of Balsu, one of the world's leading hazelnut producers.
He is a descendant of Bedir Khan Beg and Kurdish poet Abdurrahim Rahmi Zapsu [tr].
[3] After the Turkish coup d'état of 1960, his family had to leave Turkey because his father was a politician in the governing Democrat Party.
[9] Cuneyd Zapsu and his mother had also donated $300,000 to the charity Mufaqaf in 1990s, which was closely related to Yasin Kadi and had been classified as to be connected to Al Qaeda by the United States following the September 11 attacks in New York.
[11] Zapsu denied any irregularities in their business relations and Guy Martin, Kadi's lawyer, stated that no UN sanctions were breached with the transactions in question.
[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 in charge of the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant.