Isbank stake to treasury: Erdogan
New Istanbul airport to open fully end of year
ISTANBUL, Oct 13, (RTRS): Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party will push through parliament a law transferring to the treasury the main opposition party’s shares in Isbank, Turkey’s largest listed lender, Erdogan said on Saturday.
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) owns a 28 percent stake in Isbank, bequeathed to it by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic.
Erdogan made the comment after pro-government newspaper Sabah reported earlier on Saturday that AKP was in the process of drawing up a draft law facilitating the transfer.
“We as the AK Party will bring this issue to parliament. Thankfully the MHP said it will give its support,” Erdogan told a rally in central Turkey’s Kayseri province, referring to his party’s nationalist allies.
“God willing we will push this through parliament and secure the transfer of this stake to the Turkish Republic’s treasury,” he said.
The AK Party has 290 seats in parliament and along with the MHP’s 50 seats has a comfortable majority needed to pass legislation in the 600 seat assembly. The CHP has 144 seats.
Isbank shares opened 2.4 percent lower on Thursday after Erdogan’s comments in the media that the treasury should take over the CHP stake.
Erdogan has previously voiced concern about a political party controlling a large stake of a major bank and said authorities should look into CHP members serving on Isbank’s board.
Turkey is due to hold local elections in March next year.
Meanwhile, Istanbul’s new airport will not open fully until the end of this year, a newspaper on Saturday cited the general manager as saying, two months later than an official opening scheduled for the end of this month.
The airport is a centrepiece of a 15year construction boom under President Tayyip Erdogan. It has an initial planned capacity of 90 million passengers a year, making it one of the world’s biggest.
Its official opening has been set for Oct 29, the anniversary of the Turkish Republic’s proclamation in 1923, but the general manager, Kadri Samsunlu, said it would only open partially on that date.