Two of the 5 government appointed trustees who currently control management of the Koza İpek holdings have complained the other 3 are members of the “parallel structure,” –a derogatory term concocted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to vilify members of Hizmet (aka Gülen Movement), a grassroots civil society organization.
The trustees were appointed to Koza İpek as part of a Justice and Development Party-led (AKP) crackdown against Hizmet in September 2015, just days before a crucial election which saw the AKP regain a majority in the Turkish parliament.
Trustees Mustafa Akçil, Hayrullah Dağıstan and Arif Yalçın, filed to have trustees Hikmet Keleş and Hamza Yanık removed from their position at the companies, according to Yeni Hayat daily.
The initial 26 trustees were decreased first to 9 and then five after fights broke out between them on who should administer which part of the companies. After the remaining 5 trustees began squabbling about who should gain which part of the holdings, the Ankara 5th Criminal Court of Peace decided to remove 2 of the trustees. However the Ankara 6th Criminal court of Peace overruled the previous decision restoring the two trustees to their positions.
At this point complaints were made to the court that the remaining three trustees are members of Hizmet and are secretly working in lieu with the İpek family who own the holdings and are currently in exile. The 22 seized companies under Koza İpek include four media outlets that were critical of the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Koza İpek’s 22 companies were taken over after a a highly controversial expertise report claimed the companies’ financial records were “too perfect.”
“In countries like Turkey which have volatile economic conditions, it does not suit financial, technical or commercial realities that companies would not have improprieties in their corporate structures where large sums of money are exchanged,” the report by Prof. Dr. Şafak Ertan Çomaklı claimed.
The takeover sparked an outcry in Turkey and abroad and prompted calls from media organizations, politicians and rights groups on the government and Erdoğan to stop repression of the independent media.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP launched a self-declared war against Hizmet after a corruption probe went public on Dec. 17, 2013, incriminating senior members of the government, and the sons of three now-former ministers as well as Erdoğan’s family members. Erdoğan accused Hizmet of being behind the probe and attempting to overthrow his government, the movement strongly rejects the claims.
A total of 2,000 trustees were reportedly appointed to hundreds of private entities in Turkey over the past six months, in what is considered an alarming issue regarding increasing government control across the country.