(Turkish) Star wars

Two weeks ago, a repentant Erdogan was probably brooding over his flagship privatization auction. He never guessed Uzan, possibly his chief political rival in local elections early next year and a most controversial multi-billionaire, would skillfully defeat all competing bids for state petrochemicals giant Petkim and leave the government in a thorny situation. Apprently Erdogan did not wait too long to match the move. Last week, he seized Uzan’s money machines, two power utilities, on charges of financial irregularity.

An all rage Uzan the politician called Erdogan "a villain," and "an atheist (in quite the pejorative way widely used in Turkish argot)." That, of course, prompted a legal probe against Uzan. But that should be hardly any trouble for a man who lost two power companies and 11 dams overnight.

The Energy Ministry cancelled operational licenses and reclaimed control of Cukurova Elektrik and Kepez Elektrik which Uzan had bought from the government five years earlier. The decision came after the utilities refused to transfer transmission rights to the state electricity transmission company as demanded by an IMF-backed law that regulates the electricity market.

Both companies should have transferred transmission rights covering five eastern Mediterranean cities to the government by February 28 but they delayed the handover, saying it was unconstitutional. Instead, Uzan has been navigating through various courts seeking a warrant against the move. He failed to do so.

Also, financial auditors found grave irregularities in corporate books and behavior — even before Erdogan came to power. Cukurova and Kepez, both floated on the bourse, they found out, had inflated their investment bills and cheated the small investor. The utilities also broke anti-monopoly rules by refusing to sell electricity to smaller power companies in their region. All the troubles concerning Cukurova and Kepez ended up in scenes reminiscent of thriller movies.

Last Thursday, an army of policemen and Gendarmerie troops physically took over Cukurova and Kepez and seized all documentation. They used force to take out a senior company official. Like in a real ancient war, the Uzan company flag was pulled down and the governmental flag was hoisted.

Uzan says this was a political plot to block his rise to power. He accuses Erdogan for stealing his $6 billion worth of property, and he swears he will take it back. Erdogan’s senior cabinet ministers say no one is exempt from jurisdiction. They accuse Uzan for using his political shield to keep on behaving illegally.

Uzan’s dealings in Cukurova and Kepez are apparently not perfectly clean. All the same the whole episode, inevitably, smells of politics. Uzan, after all, is the man of whom Erdogan mentions as "his major political rival." Recent opinion polls put Uzan’s fiercely nationalist Young Party second after Erdogan’s Justice and Development.

Erdogan may have implemented law and order at the power utilities. But would he have done so if the troubled companies had been owned by one of the businessmen who had sponsored his party before the elections? Erdogan’s move was also badly timed — as it just came after Uzan’s business empire placed the highest bid for a state petrochemicals giant that controls a substantial part of the Turkish industry.

This is a war between two controversial men. Erdogan has never been able to explain how he made his wealth. Once he caused shy smiles when he said he made his fortune by selling off the jewellery his guests had gifted to his son during the child’s circumcision ceremony. Although he has been acquitted most of a dozen or so corruption charges after he became the prime minister, his public image is hardly clean.

Uzan the multi-billionaire, on the other hand, has been facing a slew of court cases accusing him of fraud and racketeering at home and abroad. Two multinational mobile phone manufacturers have sued him in New York and London for defaulting on more than $2.5 billion in vendor finance that they extended to Telsim, Uzan’s mobile phone operator in Turkey.

The man owns three television channels, eight radio stations and two newspapers — all of which daringly violated Turkey’s broadcasting laws to promote their boss’s political venture before last November’s general election.

At his election rallies, Uzan said he would kick out the IMF and teach America and the West a good lesson when he came to power. Fortunately, he did not (ironically, the auction for Petkim was the first of the ambitious sell-off programs backed by the institution Uzan pledged to kick out of Turkey. And, Erdogan did the America part for him). But he was able to win seven percent of the vote only three months after he became a politician. Give me a couple of years, he says, and I shall become Turkey’s new leader.

Uzan is no doubt a clever man. Like the Sicilians say, he has already become "the stone in many people’s shoes." It will be most interesting to see if anyone will manage to remove the stone.

As for his battles with Erdogan, let’s hope there is truth in the proposition that when two eggs clash both will break