Newspaper: ZAMAN 23.02.2004
Click here to read the FULL ORIGINAL TEXT IN TURKISH
He is selling 4 million dollars of evil eyes to 62 different countries.
After his appointment to Uganda after his work at Switzerland in UN, Mr.Nafi Ervaron’s unwillingness led to him to return to his homeland Turkey. Recognizing the space in the Turkish handicrafts sector, he began the production and export of evil eyes. Taking into account so many years of export, now the company’s revenues reaches 4 million dollars of sales in 2004.
As Ervaron determines, now Ilyasoglu Limited Company stands as the sole exporter of evil eyes to all over the world. After asking him why to start such a business, Mr.Nafi Ervaron mentioned that he tried to fill in the gap in the Turkish Handicrafts Sector. He is willing to introduce the handicrafts sector and the evil eyes to all over the world. He continued:
I was born in Istanbul. After finishing Lycee de Galatasaray, I studied Political Science in France. Afterwards, I studied 3 years in UN for the program of "assistance to developing countries. Then I was appointed to Uganda, this encouraged me to return to Turkey. After my return, I began to work in Derby Rubber Company as a general manager.
The need to fill the gap in the Turkish Handicrafts Sector led me to quit my job and work with the evil eyes company my brother has formed. In this business that I have started about 20 years, firstly we increased our domestic sales. Afterwards, we began exporting to countries close to Turkey like Greece, Lebanon, Israel and to Europe. If we take into count all the women working at houses manufacturing evileyes, our company’s employement would be around 2 thousand. We export to 62 different countries, USA, Germany, France, Mexico, UK, Canada and Chile taking the lead.
We sell our evil eyes to different gift shops all our Turkey and Grand Bazaar and we also sell to airports all around the country. We do not have any competitor other than Turkey, there is no such company doing our business in such a professional way. There are some firms manufacturing and selling, however they do not become our competitors because they are not professional as we are. Our web site only aimed at export is in English and it is www.ilyasoglu.com. Our aim for 2004 and the years after is selling all the handicrafts which describe Turkey. We exhibit in fairs in Frankfurt, New York, Chicago and Italy and target to sell evil eyes all over the world.
