Three Borsa Istanbul managers leave their posts

ISTANBUL

Two deputy chairmen and a unit head in Turkey’s main stock exchange Borsa Istanbul (BIST) have left their offices amid a major reshuffle that is shaking the ranks of nearly every state-linked institution.

BIST Deputy Chairman Ali Çöplü and Mustafa Balcı’s have left their posts “as part of new organization restructuring in the stock exchange,” according to BIST officials quoted by Anadolu Agency.
Officials said organizational restructuring had been continuing within BIST for some time and the departure of managers are part of this process.

“As part of this [restructuring], some main business branches’ merging came to the agenda. As a result of these merges, two deputy chairman positions have been lifted because the main units under their authority have been merged as well,” officials claimed.

BIST Research Unit Director Orhan Erdem also reportedly left his office as part of the merge of his unit with the Business Development Directorate.

A BIST official told Reuters Baltacı and Çöplü’s removal was decided in the last board meeting on May 2.
It was not immediately made clear whether the dismissals were linked to a series of purges at other state institutions over the recent weeks after a high-level corruption scandal broke late last year.

When asked about the reason of the replacements during Financial Times’ Turkey Summit yesterday, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek claimed it is government’s duty to remove officials who are revealed to be linked to “the parallel state,” the term used to define Gülen supporters by the government.

“If we discover high-ranking officials’ connections with the parallel state, we should remove them from their positions,” Şimşek said answering reporters’ questions.

“Since the early 1970s, this community has incorporated students at early ages. They have climbed up to some certain bureaucratic positions and everybody knows this,” he said
But he also refuted the general perception that all changes are related with the corruption investigation.

“There used to be appointments before Dec. 17 [2013] as well, but now they are followed more closely,” he said.

Scores of key police department and judiciary officials, who were held directly responsible of “being behind the graft probe” targeting prominent pro-government figures, have been reshuffled as part of massive operations immediately after the launch of the investigation on Dec. 17.

As the government vowed to “purge” Gülen’s movement out of the state institutions and waged a war against his supporters, the operations extended to key financial institutions, with the Finance Ministry at the top.

As the latest example of top level reshuffles, the head of Turkey’s Financial Crime Investigation Board (MASAK) was dismissed from duty last week.

The heads of two other prominent Finance Ministry units, Revenue Administration General Director Mehmet Kilci and Budget and Control General Director İlhan Hatipoğlu were reportedly also removed from their offices.

The Capital Markets Board, Turkey’s financial markets regulator, also dismissed three deputy chairmen and 11 other senior members on April 25.

High-ranking members of the state banking regulator, BDDK, were also removed from their posts in January.