EditErdoğan ally quits after huge stock gains raise questions over market manipulation
Fatma Kaya invested about 63.36 million lira and later sold shares for around 1.34 billion lira, shortly before stock market crashed
A senior official in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AK Party has stepped down after opposition allegations that she and her husband made huge gains from shares in a shipbuilding company shortly before a market sell-off triggered by a wider investment fund crisis.
Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, an AK Party deputy chair responsible for social policies and a former family and social policies minister, asked Erdoğan on Saturday (26 September) to relieve her of all her party posts, saying she wanted to take political responsibility while the allegations were examined.
The resignation has added a political dimension to a financial crisis that has already prompted Turkish regulators and prosecutors to intervene in the investment fund industry, with hundreds of thousand investors affected.
The allegations were made by Zeynel Emre, spokesman for the opposition Yeni Party, at a press conference on Saturday. According to the figures cited by Emre, Fatma Kaya invested about 63.36 million lira and later sold shares for around 1.34 billion lira. mainly in shipbuilder Özata Denizcilik, shortly before stock market crashed.
Her husband allegedly invested approximately 99.69 million lira and withdrew around 826 million lira. The timing of the transactions is at the centre of the political controversy.
Özata Denizcilik’s shares traded at around 220 lira at the beginning of April before climbing to a mind blowing 4980 lira for a share on 15 September, according to the figures cited in the allegations.
The sharp rise came shortly before a severe sell-off in Turkish equities linked to a liquidity crisis in the country’s investment fund industry. Emre questioned why such large transactions had taken place ahead of the market turmoil.
No public official statement reviewed for this article identifies either of them as a suspect in the wider market-manipulation investigation.
Kaya said that it was necessary to take political responsibility while the claims were investigated and asked Erdoğan to remove her from all the positions she held in the AK Party. Erdoğan accepted her resignation, according to the party leadership.
Kaya is not a marginal figure within the party. She served as Turkey’s family and social policies minister from 2016 to 2018 and later became an AK Party deputy chair responsible for social policies.
A much bigger financial crisis
The political controversy erupted against the backdrop of a much broader crisis in Turkey’s investment fund industry. The immediate problem emerged in mid-September, when a number of Turkish investment funds struggled to meet redemption requests after sharp falls in several thinly traded shares.
Funds heavily exposed to illiquid stocks were forced to sell more liquid assets to raise cash, adding to the pressure on the wider market. The BIST-100 benchmark fell by more than 8% in the sell-off, its sharpest decline since March 2025, according to Reuters.
The crisis exposed vulnerabilities in a market where a relatively small number of liquid companies account for a large share of trading, while some investment funds had significant exposure to stocks with limited free float and relatively low trading volumes.
Turkish regulators responded with emergency measures. On 17 September, the Capital Markets Board (SPK) ordered the closure to trading of investment funds established by seven portfolio management companies and ordered the liquidation of designated funds.
The measure eventually covered 131 funds, according to the SPK, with 455,758 individual investors holding positions in those funds.
The financial turmoil also triggered a criminal investigation into large transactions in the Turkish stock market. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said investigators were examining substantial purchases and sales carried out between July, when investment funds reached their peak assets under management, and 16 September, when the authorities moved to liquidate dozens of funds.
The investigation focuses on allegations of market manipulation rather than on the political claims against Kaya.
On Monday, however, Istanbul prosecutors lifted the measures affecting 45 companies and 19 funds, following new assessments and notifications from the SPK and other relevant authorities. Measures concerning individuals remained in place.
The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office said the investigation into capital-market transactions was continuing, while the authorities would continue monitoring transactions and asset movements linked to the case.
Özata Denizcilik has become one of the central companies in the investigation because of the extraordinary rise and subsequent volatility in its share price.
Caption: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference at the 2026 NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, 8 July 2026. EPA/FILIP SINGER
Sources: Reiters, Euronews, CyprusMail, borsaningundemi.com
Updated: September 29, 2026 - 05:13
