CHP leader vows to defend party’s shares in İşbank

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has vowed to defend his party’s shares in lender İşbank.

“We will do whatever possible on the legal ground,” Kılıçdaroğlu said at his party’s parliamentary group meeting on Oct. 16.

“He [referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] says he will transfer Atatürk’s shares in the bank to the Treasury. They want to take control of the bank. They are making plans to siphon off the bank. This is the country’s largest private bank. What would foreign investors’ think about it?” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The CHP owns 28 percent of İşbank, the country’s largest listed bank by assets.

At the bank, Atatürk shares are at 28.09 percent. As stipulated by modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s will, the profits of these shares go to the Turkish Language Institution and the Turkish History Institution.

The government plans to transfer “Atatürk shares” owned by the CHP in İşbank to the Treasury through a legal regulation with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in parliament, Erdoğan said on Oct. 9.

“Let’s transfer what Atatürk’s will stipulates to the Treasury, as this is not a right of individuals or the CHP. This is not about İşbank. Here the will of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk matters,” Erdoğan added.

As the war of words between the opposition and Erdoğan intensified, İşbank issued a statement in late September, saying that it was too important not to be made the subject of a political debate.