ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s main opposition said on Monday that the resignation of Finance Minister Berat Albayrak in a statement on Instagram was unprecedented and amounted to a “state crisis”, while also criticizing the surprise removal of the central bank governor.
Albayrak’s resignation, citing health reasons, came a day after President Tayyip Erdogan, his father in-law, appointed former finance minister Naci Agbal to replace former bank chief Murat Uysal. No reason was given for the move, but officials said the lira’s slump was to blame.
Speaking at a news conference in Ankara, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said that Erdogan was running the country like a “family company”, adding that the central bank had lost its independence. He also said it was shameful that no major Turkish media outlet had reported the resignation in nearly 24 hours.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
