President Erdoğan’s aide calls for nationalization of Turkey’s İşbank

ISTANBUL - Reuters

HÜRRİYET photo

An aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for the nationalization of the country’s biggest private bank, İşbank, in which the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has a 28 percent stake.

The aide, Yiğit Bulut, made the comments after lawyers for Erdoğan this week filed a lawsuit against CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for describing the president as a “tin-pot dictator” in a speech.

“I am speaking very clearly; a [political] party cannot have a bank. Necessary legislation should be enacted urgently and this bank should be turned into a state bank,” Bulut said in a TV program broadcast on state-run TRT Haber late on Jan. 19.

“That bank belongs to the state, the people. A party cannot have an organic link to a bank. After that speech, after those insults to the president, state, people and religious community, that bank should urgently be returned to the people,” he said.

İşbank shares were down 3.31 percent at 4.38 Turkish Liras by the first session on Jan. 20, underperforming the main Istanbul share index which was down 1.33 percent.

The CHP inherited a 28.09 percent stake in İşbank from the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, whose will stipulated that dividends go to the Turkish Language Association and Turkish History Association.

A foundation constituted by the bank’s employees holds a 40.15 percent stake in the bank, while the remaining 31.76 percent is listed on the Istanbul stock exchange.