Turkey: Koza Ipek staff stops trustees at media office

Trustees to the Koza Ipek Holding were not allowed to carry out their court-mandated takeover of the conglomerate’s media headquarters in Istanbul Wednesday.

When the trustees entered the building they were surrounded by the group’s workers.

One of the trustees, Umit Onal, said: "Six administrators have been appointed to the media group [by the court]; we are in the company building, but we are not being allowed to do our work."

Onal said that the conglomerate employees inside the building tried to create a perception that the trustees were making a forced intervention to the media house’s broadcast stream despite the fact that there was a court order mandating them to take over; some workers even positioned their cameras on the trustees, which was then also broadcast live. 

"Their broadcast aims to mislead the public, which is continuing to steer them in a specific direction," he said.

Highlighting the court order that mandates the trustees to take over the group, Onal said: "Their aim is to show some negative images to public and portray what is happening as a coup to the world and media outside."

He also said that even though the trustees have been wronged by not being able to do their duty as mandated by the court, the media group was trying to spin this incident as an unlawful move against it.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the appointment of trustees was not a case of political intervention.

In remarks made during a joint broadcast of Best FM and Baba Radio Wednesday, Davutoglu said: “It is a legal process which means it is a process followed by prosecutors and judges of our courts. A political intervention by us is out of question. Therefore, a legal process should follow its own course. If there is anyone objecting to this then it should be done within the limits of law."

The Koza Ipek Holding, which has interests in media, energy, construction and mining, is accused of providing funding for the “Gulenist Terror Organization” headed by U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, who is said to have infiltrated Turkey’s state apparatus with thousands of followers in an effort to overthrow the government.

Koza Ipek Holding Chairman Akin Ipek is believed to have left Turkey before police raided his companies’ premises last month.

Ankara Fifth Criminal Court of Peace said Monday that a letter from the city’s chief public prosecutor outlined how Ipek was "understood" to provide financing for Gulen. The letter said that if the company’s executives were to continue in their roles "there is strong suspicion that [they] will continue committing the specified crimes". The court then agreed to a prosecutor’s request to remove control of the company's current board of directors.