Petkim general manager detained, parent firm Socar appoints new name

Ankara says Gülen and his followers are behind the bloody July 15 coup attempt. 

Nizamaddin Guliyev, the spokesperson of Azerbaijani energy giant Socar, which owns more than 56 percent of the refinery, confirmed Korku’s dismissal, announcing that Anar Mammadov, who is also the head of Socar Greece, has replaced him. 

“Mammadov will be introduced to Petkim’s staff on July 28,” APA quoted Guliyev as saying. 

“Other senior employees of Socar Turkey Energy have been also dismissed as part of the staff reforms ongoing in the company since April,” he added.

According to the report, among those resigned are Ömer Adsız, director of public relations department at Socar Turkey, Ilgar Mehmetoğlu, director of the company’s human resources department, Çetin Korkut, director of the company’s IT department, and Fuat Ulagay, director of human resources department at Star refinery. 

Socar also said in an advertisement on the Turkish media that it will continue its investments in Turkey. 
“We are one nation, two states,” the ad said, pointing to historic Turkish-Azeri relations. 

The ad noted that the company has invested $18 billion in Turkey since 2008. 

Socar Turkey named a new CEO in a written statement on April 25. The deputy head of SOCAR’s investments department, Zaur Gahramanov, was appointed SOCAR’s Turkey CEO, replacing Kenan Yavuz, who has resigned.

“During Yavuz’s leadership, SOCAR Turkey was very successful. It is obvious that he made a huge contribution to the industrialization of Turkey. He will continue to be a board member in our group companies,” Socar Turkey Chair Vagif Aliyev said at the time. 

The Star Refinery, the first oil refinery project in Turkey since 1975, will be online by March 2018, carried out by Socar Turkey, which has a number of other crucial investments in the country, including Petkim and a majority stake in the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, a very large pipeline that is going be built, from the Caspian Sea to Turkey through Europe. 

Azerbaijani energy giant Socar holds a 58 percent share interest in TANAP, while Turkey’s BOTAŞ has a 30 percent share and BP owns a 12 percent stake. 

After the attempted coup, a number of countries including Azerbaijan have started to take action against suspected members of the Gülen movement in their territories, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said, adding that he had particularly contacted his Kyrgyz counterpart over the issue. 

The Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) has appealed to all energy companies in Turkey to dismiss all Gülen supporters. Twenty-five employees of the EPDK were previously dismissed over the failed military coup attempt in Turkey.