GÖKHAN KURTARAN
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
Members of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce met for the first time Thursday since the arrest of their president, Murat Yalçıntaş, in a real estate bribery scandal that erupted last month. Converging on the chamber’s headquarters, the members requested the release of their chairman even as a daily newspaper published a document that could implicate Yalçıntaş.
Şekip Avdagiç, ICOC deputy chairman, said the chamber “has full trust” in Yalçıntaş. “A group of our members visited him Wednesday. They observed that he is in good condition and that he believes in his innocence. We are sure that Yalçıntaş will be [back among us] after proving his innocence in court.”
Daily Taraf, meanwhile, published a story Thursday about a document that it claimed was a “sign of bribery” of $2 million. According to Taraf, Yalçıntaş and members of the Istanbul Word Trade Center signed a document on Nov. 14, 2008. According to the document, nearly 1.25 million Turkish Liras was allocated to lawyers as an “advance payment.”
Disputed piece of land
The bribery case involves retired and active lawyers and judges. The case involves a piece of land situated between the IWTC and the CNR Expo Center near the Atatürk Airport. According to claims, IWTC allegedly bribed judges and lawyers to obtain a ruling against CNR Expo’s claims to the land. The ICOC owns nearly 42 percent of IWTC.
The Taraf story implied that the “lawyer money” was to be allocated to distributing bribes to members of the judiciary.
The document may have created a rift within the chamber, as was evident during a video presentation for journalists Thursday. When Yalçıntaş appeared on the wide screen, only half of the audience applauded, while the other half remained silent.
“The solidarity of members toward Yalçıntaş is about to fall apart,” a board member was heard telling another member by the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review after the press conference.
ICOC’s lawyers requested the release of Yalçıntaş last week, but were rejected. “We will file the same request once more next week,” Avdagiç said.
Businessman Zafer İpekçi, meanwhile, castigated Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, chairman of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges, or TOBB. Addressing the board, İpekçi said Hisarcıklıoğlu “keeps changing his tone while talking about the arrest of our chairman.”
Noting that Sinan Aygün, the president of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, was taken into custody in 2008 over claims about the ongoing Ergenekon case, İpekçi said: “Hisarcıklıoğlu displayed support for him at that time. Why does he not show his support for our chairman?”
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