Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya resigned as a deputy chair of President Tayyip Erdoğan's governing AK Party after an opposition politician raised allegations about highly profitable share transactions. The controversy emerged as Turkey's investment-fund industry faced a liquidity crisis and a sharp stock-market selloff.
Kaya, responsible for social policies within the party and family minister from 2016 to 2018, said she asked Erdoğan to release her from every position. She described the decision as accepting political responsibility while the allegations were examined and offered no detailed rebuttal.
Yeni Party spokesman Zeynel Emre alleged that Kaya and her husband, İlyas Kaya, invested a combined 163 million lira, about $3.3 million, in April. He said the purchases focused mainly on shipbuilder Özata Denizcilik and later generated proceeds of roughly 2.17 billion lira, or $44 million.
Özata shares rose from around 220 lira at the beginning of April to 4,980 lira on September 15. A day later, suspected manipulation in thinly traded stocks triggered turmoil across investment funds, producing a liquidity squeeze and steep declines in share prices.
Emre said the timing of the transactions required explanation, presenting the claim as an allegation rather than an established legal finding. Kaya's resignation allows the inquiry to proceed without her remaining in party leadership, but it does not determine whether the trades violated any rule.
Turkish authorities moved to support financial stability after some investment funds could not satisfy redemption demands from nearly half a million investors. The episode widened concern from the conduct of individual traders to the resilience and oversight of the broader fund industry.
Özata Denizcilik separately disclosed that chairman Özdemir Ataseven and vice chairman Gökhan Ataseven had been jailed pending trial in the investigation into the funds crisis. Their detention and Kaya's resignation increased political pressure for a full account of the market's abrupt reversal.