Turkcell saga nears climax with UK court ruling A long-running battle over Turkcell, Turkey's biggest mobile group, is entering a crucial week, with a UK court set to rule on a controlling stake in the operator and the Turkish parliament considering legislation that one big shareholder says could pave the way to its virtual nationalisation. The saga highlights the central role of Turkish government entities in the country's corporate landscape. For years, the fate of Turkcell has hinged on a battle between Mehmet Karamehmet, long one of Turkey's richest men, and Mikhail Fridman, the Russian oligarch, who have fought for control of the group on behalf of their respective companies, Cukorova and Alfa. Their fight may reach its climax on Tuesday, when the UK Privy Council decides the terms on which Cukorova can reacquire the stake from Alfa, which it previously lost when it defaulted on a $1.4bn loan. But the case has been overshadowed by two developments that have taken place since the Privy Council's January ruling that Cukorova was entitled to try to buy back the shares: a plunge in Mr Karamehmet's fortunes and the prospect of state-appointed directors taking control of the Turkcell board. "It now appears that this was never really about Karamehmet," said a lawyer close to one of the minority shareholders in Turkcell. This case shows the heavy hand of the Turkish government. Officials from Alfa and its Nordic ally, TeliaSonera, have complained for years that the Turkish government effectively frustrated the Russian group's attempts to assert more control over Turkcell - one of Turkey's best known brands - through moves such as successive changes of corporate governance rules that delayed a boardroom showdown. But this year any appearance of a marriage of convenience between Ankara and Mr Karamehmet has disappeared, as a Turkish savings deposit insurance fund has, under provisions of Turkish law, seized a clutch of Cukorova's assets because of liabilities dating back to a 2000-2001 Turkish banking crash. Alfa Group's allies say those seizures have raised doubts about Cukorova's ability to come up with the funds to regain control of Turkcell; some Cukorova employees argue that the value of the assets seized outstrips the $455m the group owes to the insurance fund. In June, Turkey's Ciner group, which owns a television channel criticised for being unduly favourable to the government, agreed to buy Show TV, one of the seized assets, for $402m. In another sale triggered by the seizures, the Dogus and Dogan groups, two big Turkish holding companies, have both expressed interest in Digiturk, the country's leading digital television operator - a deal that could be worth up to $1bn. Cukorova owns a 54 per cent stake in Digiturk. Another seized Cukorova asset is the Aksam newspaper, where a former ruling party MP has been appointed as editor-in-chief, although the paper has yet to be sold. Meanwhile, the Turkish state, which has already appointed three independent directors to the seven-member Turkcell board, two of them former government ministers, has warned it may appoint another two. The country's Capital Markets Board has already issued a regulation empowering such a step; parliament is now deliberating the underlying law, which it may vote on this week. The CMB has argued that it does not want to intervene in appointing directors but says it has no alternative given shareholders" repeated failures to agree on board members or replace those whose terms have expired. But TeliaSonera has objected, saying "any attempts to nationalise the company by excluding TeliaSonera from the board and appointing a board which solely consists of regulator-appointed members are unacceptable." Cukorova did not respond to a request for comment.