Source of the photo: www.english.alaraby.co.uk
On November 10, 2020, Lutfi ELVAN the former deputy PM was appointed treasury and finance minister to replace Berat ALBAYRAK according to Turkey’s Official Gazette.
ELVAN, 58, was deputy prime minister between 2015 and 2016. Previously, he also held the posts of minister for development and minister of transportation, maritime affairs, and communication.
Berat ALBAYRAK is President ERDOGAN’s son-in-law. He said in a surprise statement on Sunday that he was resigning for health reasons, a day after ERDOGAN appointed former finance minister Naci AGBAL as the central bank chief.
ALBAYRAK, who has four children with ERDOGAN’s daughter Esra, presided over a rough period in the Turkish economy, which is yet to recover from a currency crisis in 2018.
Many people in Turkey, including some officials in ERDOGAN’s AK Party, believed the president wanted the 42-year-old former businessman ALBAYRAK as a future party leader and even a possible successor.
His announcement came a day after ERDOGAN sacked the central bank governor and, according to officials, ignored ALBAYRAK’s preference for a successor.
ALBAYRAK’s resignation statement did not spell out any political dispute but hinted at 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”.
Wolfango PICCOLI of political risk consultancy Teneo said that the departure will remain “politically embarrassing” for ERDOGAN.
“ERDOGAN spent a huge amount of political capital in advancing Berat’s path within the party” PICCOLI added. “He granted him unparalleled power and influence, and that came at a cost of alienating key figures in the AK Party”.
On November 9, 2020, Naci AGBAL the newly-installed governor said the central bank would “decisively” use all policy tools to achieve its main goal of price stability.
Turkish inflation has held near 12% all year, well above a target of around 5%.
This article was edited using the data from Aljazeera.com, Aa.com.tr, Abcnews.go.com, English.alaraby.co.uk, and English.aawsat.com.
