Three Turkcell executives resign amid rising gov't interference in company

Three deputy general managers have quit their posts at Turkey?s largest mobile phone operator, Turkcell, amid rising interference by the government into the company, which has a complex shareholder structure. 

?Deputy General Manager of Corporate Sales and Marketing Selen Kocaba?, Corporate Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Inter-operational Management Tayfun Çataltepe and Deputy General Manager of Law Tolga Cem Seyfeli have decided to quit their posts as of April 17,? the company said in a written statement to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) on April 13. 

Süreyya Ciliv, who was appointed the company?s CEO in 2007, also resigned from his position, effective from Jan. 31 this year. 

Ciliv said he was happy with resigning from the position and would focus on investing in new projects at a live interview on Bloomberg HT. 

Turkcell appointed Kaan Terzioglu as its new CEO in March. 

A row between Turkey?s Çukurova, Russia?s Altimo and Nordic telecoms giant Telia Sonera has hampered Turkcell?s development for years, as it was unable to agree on the make-up of its board and was also unable to pay dividends. 

Feuding Turkcell shareholders finally called a truce on March 26 to pay themselves a $1.5 billion dividend, signaling a potential thaw in a protracted battle over the company.

Çukurova, however, said in a statement on April 1 it had launched an arbitration process to buy out the indirect Turkcell stake held by the Alfa Group. Details of the arbitration process were not immediately available.