As Turkey’s Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, who is also the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced his resignation unexpectedly on Sunday, there are many scenarios and claims circulating in the Turkish media regarding the possible reasons behind his resignation.
The minister cited health reasons while stepping down from his post; however, many think there are other reasons that prompted Albayrak to quit his job. The silence of the government officials and pro-government media outlets, which have so far failed to confirm or report about the minister’s resignation, give more way to speculation about the actual reasons for his resignation.
According to a report in the Cumhuriyet newspaper on Monday, Albayrak was not informed about the appointment of Naci Ağbal, a former minister, as the president of the central bank and decided to resign in protest.
As made public in the Official Gazette on Saturday, Erdoğan dismissed the head of Turkey’s central bank, Murat Uysal, and replaced him with former finance minister Ağbal as the Turkish lira hit record lows over the last few weeks. Uysal was just 16 months into his four-year term at the helm of the central bank.
“Albayrak had no prior information about Ağbal’s appointment as the head of the central bank. A tense conversation took place between Albayrak and Erdoğan in the morning. However, I think Erdoğan will not accept his resignation. Albayrak also thinks so,” wrote Erdal Sağlam, a journalist from the Cumhuriyet daily.
Another possible reason for Albayrak’s resignation has been cited by Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a member of the Turkish Parliament from the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and a renowned rights activist.
In a Twitter post, Gergerlioğlu said, based on information from his sources, Erdoğan forced Albayrak to resign because Bülent Arınç, a former AKP politician who is currently a member of the presidential higher advisory board, warned Erdoğan that 30-40 AKP deputies would resign from the party and join the ranks of the Deva Party if Albayrak does not hand in his resignation.
The Deva Party is a newly-established opposition party headed by Ali Babacan, a former AKP politician who parted ways with the party due to conflict of views.
Albayrak has frequently been blamed for the deterioration of the Turkish economy as the Turkish lira’s decline in value, nearly 30 percent so far this year, has led to higher inflation via imports priced in hard currencies. Prices have also remained elevated due to an increase in borrowing and rising food prices, leading the country’s central bank to raise its year-end inflation forecast last week to 12.1 percent from 8.9 percent.
In a recent statement to a local TV station in Konya, Arınç acknowledged that there are problems in the Turkish economy and he had expressed his concerns to Albayrak.
“Even when the minister [Albayrak] denied the existence of these problems in the economy, describing them as ‘psychological,’ I objected to him… We all see very concretely that a problem exists. The important thing is not to deny its existence but to accept it and take the necessary action to find a solution,” Arınç said.
Bekir Ağırdır, the head of the Konda polling company, told t24 news website that resignation of Albayrak and the way he made his resignation public, through a statement on his Instagram account, show the division in the AKP ranks have made its way even to the presidential palace.
Considering the silence of the pro-government media about Albayrak’s resignation, Ağırdır said these media outlets keep their silence because they do not yet know which position they should take, whether they should support the resignation decision or object to it, because Erdoğan has not yet his stance on the issue clear yet.
In the meantime, Albayrak’s resignation led to mixed reactions among the AKP deputies. Some party deputies expressed their opinion that the final decision lies with Erdoğan and they hope Albayrak will return to his post. However, some AKP deputies such as the İstanbul deputy Ahmet Hamdi Çamlı in a vaguely-worded message on Twitter pointed to the intra-party conflicts and how “acts of betrayal” can be harmful to the party.
Some political parties in the country have also expressed their uneasiness over the uncertainty surrounding Albayrak’s resignation, noting that intra-party conflicts of the AKP lead to financial loss for Turkey.
Faik Öztrak, party spokesperson and deputy chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) said in a statement: “Th country is in a financial crisis. For hours, it is not clear whether the finance minister resigned or not. The family conflicts sink our economy. Our country does not have to bear the caprices of the one-man regime.”
Ahmet Davutoğlu, a former AKP heavyweight who later parted with the party and established the rival Gelecek Party, said in a Twitter message on Sunday that Albayrak’s resignation and the developments following it make it obligatory to change the system that has turned the Turkish state order into a “tribal order.”
“That’s why we emphasize the importance of a strengthened parliamentary system,” said Davutoğlu.
Turkey switched from a parliamentary system to the presidential system of governance, which granted the president extensive powers, with a public referendum in 2017.
İYİ Party leader Meral Akşener called on President Erdoğan to accept Albayrak’s resignation, saying that allowing him to remain in the post as the finance minister, would cost Erdoğan his seat in the next election.
The post Questions linger over possible reasons behind resignation of Turkey’s finance minister appeared first on Turkish Minute.
from Turkish Minute https://www.turkishminute.com/2020/11/09/questions-linger-over-possible-reasons-behind-resignation-of-turkeys-finance-minister/
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