Head of Turkish business group critical of Erdogan resigns

Muharrem Yilmaz said he was standing down as chairman of the Turkish Industrialists' & Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) to prevent harm to the organisation after reports of poor treatment of protesting workers at the Sutas dairy company he heads.

"This post has been entrusted to me and because I could not allow this to be damaged, I have resigned," Yilmaz, a high-profile figure in Turkey's business world, told a news conference, casting the allegations as the start of a campaign to undermine TUSIAD.

"I could not have possibly ignored these stories, which risk turning into an operation to tarnish TUSIAD via me. That's why I have made this decision," he said.

Several pro-government newspapers reported on Wednesday that Sutas had tried to fire workers who wanted to join a labour union and that manure was dumped in an area where they were protesting in a bid to deter them.

Yilmaz dismissed the allegations, saying a witch-hunt of union members was out of the question and that workers who were dismissed had been fired either for their performance or because they had disrupted the workplace environment.

He has been a regular critic of Erdogan's government.

At the height of a government corruption scandal in January, Yilmaz said foreign investment would not be attracted to a country where companies were put under pressure by tax fines and other punishments or where the state regularly changed the conditions under which it granted tenders. Erdogan dubbed him a traitor for the comments.

"You can't say 'international capital won't come.' If you do, it's treason against this country," the prime minister said at the time, warning he would "take a stance" against those who challenged his ruling AK Party.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by John Stonestreet)