Berat Albayrak said he would spend more time with his family than he said he “neglected”
Ankara, Turkey:
The son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan resigned from his post as finance minister on Sunday, citing health reasons in a statement posted on his verified Instagram account.
“After holding ministerial posts for nearly five years, I made the decision not to continue my post (as finance minister) due to health issues,” said Berat Albayrak.
He said he would spend more time with his family than he said he “neglected”, the statement said.
Albayrak, 42, is married to Erdogan’s eldest daughter, Esra, and has been Minister of Finance since 2018. He was Minister of Energy before that between 2015 and 2018.
It is not yet known whether the resignation will be accepted.
When Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu resigned earlier this year, Erdogan refused to accept it and Soylu remains in his post today.
Albayrak’s resignation comes a day after Erdogan sacked the central bank governor after the Turkish lira has lost 30% of its value against the US dollar since the start of the year.
The new governor is former finance minister Naci Agbal who replaced Murat Uysal, who only held the post for 16 months.
Uysal was sacked by presidential decree on Saturday, as his predecessor Murat Cetinkaya was in July 2019.
There was speculation in the Turkish media that Albayrak resigned following the decision to appoint Agbal.
But the deputy chairman of Erdogan’s ruling AKP party parliamentary group, Mehmet Mus, tweeted his support for Albayrak who was finance minister “during a very difficult time.”
“I hope he will continue in his role with the approval of the president,” added Mus.
– Support from deputies –
His feelings were echoed by Deputy Transport Minister Omer Fatih Sayan, who tweeted: “I hope the resignation will not be accepted. Our country, our nation and the Ummah (Muslim community) need you.”
Some AKP MPs tweeted their support for him with the hashtag #SeninleyizBeratAlbayrak, which means “We are with you, Berat Albayrak”.
But the former chief central bank economist ousted last year greeted the news on Twitter.
“At this point, there was only one thing that could be done to come back from the crisis, and it has been done,” said Hakan Kara, adding, “What needs to be done at step one is obvious: reverse everything that has been done in the last two. years. “
During the two years spent in Albayrak as Minister of Finance, Turkey suffered a currency crisis in 2018, a recession thereafter and the lira has reached several record levels against the dollar this year.
Although this was never confirmed, it was often thought that Albayrak was being groomed by Erdogan to succeed him.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
