President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his predecessor Abdullah Gül attended the funeral of İbrahim Bodur, the founder of Kale Group, a pioneer of the ceramics industry in Turkey.

Bodur died on Monday at age 88 of natural causes. The businessman made a name for himself in the ceramic tile products industry and Kalebodur, a brand of tile his company manufactured became a household name. Erdoğan and Gül joined ministers, business community leaders, celebrities and other dignitaries attending the funeral for Bodur in Istanbul. Erdoğan said he was acquainted with "brother İbrahim" since the former's high school years. He was an elder brother I have admired since then and we met often. He advocated for being local and domestic, he was not an 'import,'" said the president, who champions locally made products to end Turkey's dependence on imports.

He was not 'bodur' [which means short in Turkish], he was a giant," he added. Kale Group expanded into other sectors after starting out in the ceramics sector in 1973. The group has a total of 17 companies ranging from the defense sector to the energy and tourism sectors. It is the largest construction chemicals producer and seller in Turkey and fifth-largest in Europe.