Aselsan chairman quits to become OYAK chief

Özgür Ekşi ANKARA

Aselsan supplies “night vision goggles” for helicopter pilots of the Turkish military.

The executive board chairman of top Turkish defense company Aselsan resigned yesterday to become the head of the military personnel’s pension fund OYAK, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned. Retired General Hasan Memişoğlu had directed Aselsan for over a year.

Aselsan, which manufactures hardware for the Turkish defense industry and is ranked 86th in the top 100 global defense corporations, announced the resignation in a notice to the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

Industry sources told the Daily News that Memişoğlu was poised to become head of OYAK, but no official announcement had been made yesterday as the Daily News went to print.

If the OYAK move is confirmed, Memişoğlu will succeed retired general Yıldırım Türker, who was detained in April as part of an investigation into the so-called “post-modern coup” of 1997. OYAK currently manufactures the French car Renault in Turkey and owns companies in the cement, food, energy and finance sectors. Its net profits stood at $817 million in 2010.

OYAK has faced criticism recently for not being sufficiently transparent and for financially discriminating in favor of high-ranking officers. Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, however, participated in OYAK’s general assembly meeting on May 7. “I attend for the first time such a meeting. I hope that my attendance will effect positively the perceptions towards OYAK,” he said.