AKP's Central Bank Pick Draws Criticism at Home and Abroad

A Turkish political columnist is raising alarms over the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) push to install an Islamic interest-free banking specialist as governor of Türkiye's Central Bank, the institution responsible for setting interest rates. The candidate, Adnan Buyukdeniz, serves as general director of Albaraka Turk, Türkiye's leading interest-free bank.

International financial circles expressed surprise at the nomination. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer blocked the appointment with a veto, which the columnist described as saving the AKP from a serious policy error. The columnist suggested the party's motivation was electoral, seeking a central bank chief aligned with its own ideological outlook.

The piece also raised broader economic concerns, citing a rising current account deficit, growing unemployment, and increasing public hardship, arguing that the economy's recent positive momentum is fading.

The columnist pushed back against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's habit of blaming 80 years of Republican governance for current problems. When the Republican People's Party (CHP) handed power to the Democrat Party in 1950, Türkiye carried no Ottoman-era foreign debt, the budget was balanced, and inflation stood at zero. By contrast, the AKP accumulated $100 billion in foreign debt within three years in office.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in March 2006, in its own words.