The resignation of Erdogan’s son-in-law shocked the government
Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law’s surprise resignation, who is one of Turkey’s most powerful cabinet positions, shocked the government. It provoked individual ruling party members who state that the nature of his leaving hurts the president.
It should be noted that the Finance and Treasury Minister, Berat Albayrak, occupied economic policy for two disturbing years when Turkey suffered from economic retardations, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a 45 percent reduction in the lira.
In Turkey, several people, including certain officials in Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, considered that the president was preparing the 42-year-old former businessman as a future party leader and even as a possible follower.
However, in a very special resignation statement posted on Instagram on Sunday, Albayrak announced that he was moving. That comes after a day that Erdogan dismissed the Central Bank governor, and he ignored the preference of Albayrak for a replacement, according to officials.
The message of Albayrak that was addressed not to Erdogan but for the attention of the public reported that he was resigning for health reasons. The presidency officials declared that they tried, and failed, to ask him for more clarification.
In a speech of Erdogan to Turkish diplomats in Ankara on Monday, he didn’t mention any information about Albayrak and his party’s spokesman refused to directly talk over the question at a news conference. Nevertheless, television networks, generally owned by businesses close to the presidency, have ignored the leaving of the government’s economic policy maker, but the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) related that the resignation of Albayrak through social media was unprecedented and amounted to a state crisis.
Within Erdogan’s ruling party, some expressed dismay.
Moreover, some members within Erdogan’s ruling party have expressed their dismay. An AK Party official said, citing both the content of Albayrak’s message and the fact that Erdogan had defended him, at some political value: Resigning like this caused serious damage to both Erdogan and the party.
The party official declared, indicating the way that Albayrak’s role developed well away from his filed into areas including national security: Erdogan invested a great deal into Mr Berat. He even upset many ministers and bureaucrats. He also said: In the end, Erdogan was going to bring him to head the party.
Otherwise, the 66-year-old president, who has governed Turkey since 2003 and faces his next presidential election in three years, has not talked about any plans to remove.
Erdogan has won modern Turkey’s most successful politician more than a dozen national and local elections; however, the lira and economy’s weakness has decreased his support in recent years.
Truth and lies
Three political sources informed Reuters that the event of the week comes after economic policy discussions at the presidential palace following the latest decline in the lira that followed a surprise Central Bank decision not to increase its policy interest rate from 10.25 percent to control a double-digit increase.
Furthermore, Erdogan, who has long opposed increasing rates to control price rises, was also informed on the extent of Turkey’s reduced foreign exchange reserves after authorities used up an estimated $100 billion of funds this year to limit the lira’s slump. The officials talked to Reuters on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal details of the discussions.
They related that Erdogan decided the substitution of the man that he designed as Central Bank governor in July 2019 specifically to reduce interest rates down from their then-increased level of 24 percent.
Refet Gurkaynak, economics professor at Bilkent University in Ankara, said that the economy is in shambles and that it was fully caused by the policies of this government became apparent even to the President. However, and according to six officials who spoke to Reuters, Erdogan’s choice of former finance minister, Naci Agbal, to head the bank opposes Albayrak’s ambition.
An economic official evoked: The person that was appointed was not someone Albayrak could work with, not someone who had similar economic views.
The resignation statement of Albayrak did not reveal any political conflict, but indicated discord in its description of a difficult time like this, where good and bad are mixed, where it is difficult to differentiate between truth and lies.
A senior Turkish official related that his departure, which must still be approved by Erdogan, could trigger a wider reshuffle of cabinet ministers and presidency staff.
Wolfango Piccoli of consultancy Teneo said that it will also remain politically embarrassing for the president. He also added that Erdogan spent a huge amount of political capital in advancing Berat’s path within the party. He granted him unparalleled power and influence, and that came at a cost of alienating key figures in the AK Party.
