A long-running dispute between the owners of Turkish mobile market leader Turkcell flared up again this week when two of its three major shareholders failed to reach agreement over board members and dividend payments.

The spat between Russia’s Altimo and Turkey’s Cukurova Holding is likely to lead to a postponement of  a Turkcell EGM scheduled to take place on Friday.

“We failed to agree with the Cukurova Group over independent board members, board structure and dividend payment issues," Altimo's vice-president Mustafa Kiral told reporters yesterday, reports Reuters.

The latest problems were triggered by Turkey’s financial regulator insisting that Turkcell comply with new rules raising the number of independent members required on boards to at least three. Turkcell has just one independent member currently (Colin Williams), though his impartially has been contested by Altimo and TeliaSonera, Turkcell’s other main shareholder. 

Cukurova said in an emailed statement to Reuters that most of the candidates proposed by Altimo and TeliaSonera for the independent board member position failed to meet the criteria required by the regulator.

Cukurova also blamed its rivals for blocking dividend payments for the last two years. Altimo hit back saying that although it has agreed with Cukurova on the 2011 dividend, failure to agree on the 2010 payment has held up both payments.

According to Reuters, TeliaSonera has the largest direct and indirect stake in Turkcell, with a 37 percent share, while Altimo has an indirect stake of 13.22 percent. Cukurova has a 14 percent stake, but carries controlling rights because of a complicated shareholder and management structure.