“I was fired on the order of her father (…) There are videos that show him coming to the bank every day in a company car, giving orders to employees while he has no authority to do so”
A former employee of the Central Bank of Turkey accuses the director of the institution, Hafiz Gaye Erkan, of granting privileges to her family, which she denies.
The 44-year-old Erkan, the first female governor of the Central Bank, was appointed to the post after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected last June. According to the Turkish press, a company car, an office and bodyguards were given to her father, Erol Erkan, whose orders “nobody dares to oppose”.
“I was fired at the behest of her father (…) There are videos showing him coming to the bank every day in a company car, giving orders to employees when he has no authority to do so,” Bushra Bozkurt told the opposition newspaper this week. Sozcu newspaper.
Bozkurt claims that her father Erkan, who does not hold any official position at the bank, fired her because she refused to work outside of her hours, according to the newspaper, which also published a copy of the former employee’s complaint to the Turkish presidency .
“Erol Erkan interferes in the work of administrative services and human resources (…) and gives them direct instructions. Staff working on the management floor are being morally harassed,” another worker, who asked to remain anonymous, told DW Turkce.
Hafize Erkan rejected the accusations and spoke of “information contrary to reality” which aims “to defame our bank”. On Friday, he threatened via the X platform that he will take legal action against those who spread “false information”.
Erkan lived for two decades in the US, where she studied and worked, until she returned to Ankara to join a group of economists tasked with pulling Turkey out of crisis after inflation hits nearly 65 percent in 2023. According to observers , drew the ire of President Erdogan when she told a Turkish newspaper in December that she had been forced to move into her parents’ home with her husband and children due to inflation and skyrocketing property prices in Turkey.
Neither Erdogan nor Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek have yet commented on the accusations against her.
Source :Skai
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