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Turkish central bank chief Hafize Gaye Erkan is stepping down after less than a year in office
Photo: Adem Altan / AFP
The head of the Turkish central bank, Hafize Gaye Erkan, has resigned following corruption allegations. She asked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to be relieved of her duties, "which I have fulfilled with honor since day one," Erkan said on social media on Friday.
The 44-year-old hit the headlines because of allegations of nepotism. According to Turkish media reports, Erkan's father was given an office, a company car and bodyguards by the central bank. He was therefore even allowed to make personnel decisions.
Worry about her family
According to reports, Erdoğan was also said to be upset that Erkan had told the newspaper "Hürriyet" in January that she had moved back in with her parents because she had not been able to find an affordable apartment in Istanbul because of the high rents. (Here you can read more about it.)
In her resignation, Erkan wrote that a “major character assassination campaign” had been organized against her. By resigning, she wants to prevent her family and her one-year-old child from being even more affected. She was in office for less than a year.
After his re-election last May, Erdoğan appointed Erkan as the first woman in history to head the Turkish central bank. Since taking office in June, she has focused on drastic interest rate increases in the fight against high inflation. The Turkish central bank recently raised the key interest rate to 45 percent at the end of January. Erdoğan had opposed such a monetary policy for years.
lph/AFP