Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fired one of four central bank deputy governors on Tuesday, according to an overnight presidential decree published in the Official Gazette.
Erdoğan’s move to replace Oğuzhan Özbaş with Semih Tümen came two months after he sacked Naci Ağbal as head of Turkey’s central bank just four months after his appointment. Ağbal was replaced by Şahap Kavcıoğlu, an economist and former ruling party lawmaker.
Tümen currently serves as an adviser to Erdoğan and is the head of the economics department at Ankara’s TED University. He served in various positions at the Central Bank of Turkey from 2002 to 2018.
Özbaş was appointed deputy governor of the central bank in July 2019 when Berat Albayrak, Erdoğan’s son-in-law, was finance and treasury minister. Albayrak resigned, citing health reasons, in a surprise move in November 2020.