Name Nurettin Misirli | ||
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Nurettin Gazi Misirli was born as Gazwan Masri in Aleppo, Syria in 1964, he left Syria in 1983 and settled in neighboring Turkey and changed his name. He first came to Turkey in 1987 for a university education and following completion, he married a Turkish woman, obtained Turkish nationality and started his own business. He became head of the Santral Group that describes itself as “supplying products and goods from Turkish and international markets and marketing them in the Arab world” and that also specializes in real estate.
In 1988, Misirli joined the Turkish Islamist business association known as MÜSİAD (Turkish acronym for the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association)
A 2011 Turkish media report cites the then Syrian Ambassador to Turkey as identifying Misirli as close to now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who was said to call him "the financer of most of the actions."