Arkan supervised the decisions to raise interest rates in Turkey from 8.5 to 45% (French)
Turkish Central Bank Governor Hafiza Ghaya Arkan announced her resignation from the position she held less than a year ago, saying that her decision came as a result of a campaign to “harm her reputation,” amid accusations that she had granted benefits to her family.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan quickly appointed her deputy, Fatih Karahan, as the new governor of the Central Bank.
For his part, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said in a statement that the current economic program will continue without interruption, noting that Arkan’s resignation came as a personal decision from her.
Arkan said in a statement, “I asked the president to relieve me of my duties, which I assumed with pride from day one.”
She added, "A campaign was recently organized to harm my reputation," noting that she resigned to "spare her family and her innocent child, who is under one and a half years old, from being further affected by this campaign."
The new governor of the Turkish Central Bank, Fatih Karahan (Anatolia)
Erdogan appointed Arkan as governor of the Turkish Central Bank last June, making her the first woman to hold this position. Since then, she has supervised the bank’s decisions to increase the base interest rate from 8.5 to 45%.
Agence France-Presse said that Arkan (44 years old) was subjected to a campaign on social media and in opposition newspapers accusing her of allowing her father to make unauthorized decisions in the institution.
The agency also stated that reports indicated that the financial official angered the Turkish President due to a statement she made last January to a local newspaper in which she said that she and her son and husband were forced to return to live with her parents due to inflation and the rise in real estate prices in Turkey.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies