I am a marauder also, Turkish bank CEO says

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Piyale Madra

Ergun Özen, the general manager of Turkey’s Garanti Bank, joked to a group of protestors that he was one of the “marauders” at Taksim Square, in an open reference to a title picked by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for those who have been involved in the week-long demonstrations across the country.

Özen was speaking to the group which came to the front door of the Garanti headquarters in Istanbul to protest the broadcasting policy of NTV, a channel that belongs to Doğuş Group, Garanti’s parent company.

Özen went down to talk to the protestors while some employees were accompanying him, and declared that the bank was not against the protests.

When the protesters reminded him of the “marauder” quote by the prime minister, Özen said the employees of the bank were also joining the protests after work. “I support the Gezi Park action,” he said. “I am a marauder also.” Özen also said that some 1,500 customers had recently canceled their credit cards. Garanti is one of the leading banks in Turkey in terms of assets, and has 8.5 million credit card customers. Meanwhile, NTV, at the heart of the public criticism for poor broadcasting of the major event, apologized to its employees, according to tweets from inside.

“We made a mistake while trying to maintain a balance in an unbalanced situation,” the management reportedly told its employees. “We know that we have to work hard to regain the confidence of the people. We were wrong, we apologize.” Pictures of a destroyed NTV vehicle were posted by protesters.