Cigar Aficionado

Over the last ten days, the world has watched as devastation continues to mount in Turkey and Syria after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, and subsequent aftershocks, that ravaged both countries. Relief efforts have sprung up across the globe and Ozgener Family Cigars just announced its commitment to support the recovery. The young cigar company will be donating a portion of the proceeds from sales of its Bosphorus line of cigars to Turkish Philanthropy Funds, an organization dedicated to supporting Turkish and Turkish-American communities, to provide aid to victims of the earthquake.  

The quake is already one of the deadliest in this century, though we’re still in the early stages of assessing its overall destruction. The official total death toll has surpassed 35,000, but it’s expected to rise. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 23 million people, including 1.4 million children, are likely to be affected by this disaster. James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, estimates the number of children affected to be much higher, closer to 7 million. The ultimate cost is widely believed to be somewhere in the tens of billions of dollars.

"What's happened in Turkey is a very emotional and devastating tragedy," said Tim Ozgener, president of Ozgener Family Cigars. "As Bosphorus has a direct inspirational connection to Turkey, we felt that we absolutely needed to help those affected." 

Both of Ozgener’s parents were born in Turkey and the Bosphorus line was created as a direct nod to the nation, specifically the Bosphorus Strait, an historically important body of water that separates Europe from Asia and is located in Turkey. The Ozgener Family Cigars Bosphorus line was the debut release from the company, which formed in 2022. Ozgener, who’s once owned the CAO cigar brand with his father Cano Ozgener, had been on a 12-year hiatus from the industry before returning last year. 

The Bosphorus cigar line comes in four sizes and is manufactured by industry legend Ernesto Perez-Carrillo at his La Alianza factory in the Dominican Republic. Cigar Aficionado completed a vertical brand tasting of the line for the January 10 edition of Cigar Insider, giving the brand an average score of 92 points. The highly consistent, box-pressed smokes were led by the B52, a robusto measuring 5 inches long by 52 ring gauge, and the B55, a toro measuring 5 1/2 inches by 55 ring gauge, each receiving a score of 93 points. 

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