After passing away on early Monday due to a heart attack, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) Chairman İbrahim Çağlar was laid to eternal rest yesterday at a funeral ceremony attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and many other politicians and businessmen in Istanbul. The funeral prayer for the deceased was held at the mosque of Marmara University School of Theology.

Speaking at the funeral ceremony, President Erdoğan said, "May Allah rest the soul of my dear brother İbrahim Çağlar. We started our political journey together and I testify that he was a pious man."

After the funeral ceremony and prayer, Çağlar was sent to the family cemetery in Sahrayıcedit, a neighborhood on the Anatolian side of Istanbul.

The 57-year-old chairman lost his life after suffering a heart attack. Ibrahim Çağlar, a father of two, was born in İstanbul's Erenköy district in 1960.

Coming from a family with a successful entrepreneurial history, Çağlar started his career in his teens and advanced in time to become the board member of several organizations including the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), the Darülaceze Foundation and the Marmara Group Strategic and Social Research Foundation.

Çağlar was also a founding member of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party and the Turkish Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD).

The successful businessman started working at ITO as a council member in 1994, was promoted to the vice chairman position in 2004, council president in 2009 and finally became the chairman in 2013.

Çağlar had also been the chairman of the Turkish Energy Efficiency Association since 2012.