Can Holding owner Kemal Can's 'state elders' remark caused a stir: Who are these state elders?

Kemal Can, one of the partners of Can Holding whose companies have been placed under the management of trustees, stated in his testimony that the acquisition of Ciner Media Group, Bilgi University, and Doğa College was directed by state officials.

According to his testimony reported in pro-government media outlets, Kemal Can stated that he purchased Ciner Media Group upon the instructions of a state elder.

Kemal Can said the following in his testimony:

“At first, a state elder of ours acted as an intermediary for the purchase of KRT TV for 7 million. However, we gave up on it.”

Furthermore, emphasizing that he purchased Ciner Media Group under the direction of a state official, Can used the following expressions:

“Kenan Tekdağ conveyed that there was no objection to entering the tender for the purchase of this thermal power plant (Çayırhan). Later, through another state official, an offer came for Turgay Ciner to sell me his thermal power plant in Silopi and his media group. An agreement was reached for the purchase for 575 million dollars, excluding Silopi.”

OFFER TO PURCHASE TÜRK TELEKOM

Kemal Can also provided an interesting detail regarding the purchase of Türk Telekom. According to what Soykan wrote, Can said: “At first, we were directed to purchase Türk Telekom. However, the process changed after the Russia-Ukraine war. This time, the purchase of Turkcell by the wealth fund came to the agenda.”

Kemal Can stated that Bilgi University and Doğa College were also purchased under the direction of high-level state officials. He also stated that they were "taken out of the hands of the USA and nationalized."

CHP Manisa MP Ahmet Vehbi Bakırlıoğlu reacted to Kemal Can's "state elder and high-level official" remarks and asked the following questions:

"Who is this state elder? Why didn't the prosecutor ask Kemal Can this? Why wasn't he curious? Why did he cover it up? Who are these high-level officials? Has the state ignored these smugglers until today?" Bakırlıoğlu stated that the state has ignored the connections with these names.

STATEMENT FROM İŞ BANKASI

İş Bankası CEO Hakan Aran stated that they provided loans to Can Holding during the media acquisition. Aran said, "We provided it as three banks. When they take a loan from banks and make a payment, this is already clean money. If they are being accused of money laundering, the issue here is not the loan they received from the bank." He also made a statement regarding the arrested Gökhan Şen and stated that they requested Şen to leave his post after he took office as the CEO of the Ciner Group.