Turkey’s central bank run by the Governor’s father?

Central Bank employee Büşra Bozkurt filed a complaint to CİMER stating that she was fired by Erol Erkan, the father of Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan. The petition also stated that Erol Erkan was allocated a room, bodyguard and an office car at the bank.

Büşra Bozkurt, who stated that she has been working as a protocol officer at the presidential floor of the Central Bank for 4 years, said in her petition to CİMER, “While Erol Erkan, the father of our esteemed President Hafize Gaye Erkan, and his mother Gamze Hanım were entering the protocol, Erol Bey said, ‘Can you drop by? I did, and he said, ‘I want reliable and stable people to enter and exit the President’s room, and you are an employee we trust’. Then he called Human Resources and said that I would serve them from now on.”

According to the news of Sözcü newspaper; “I told Mr. Erol, ‘I have a 7-year-old child who goes to school. I have to pick him up from school every day. I am a married woman, it may be difficult for me to work until these hours.” “Mr. Erol got angry and said loudly, ‘I look at the employee who says this as not working. We came all the way from America for you. I will not let you sit where you work,’ he threatened. After the incident, I was ordered to leave. When I spoke to our support services manager, he said, ‘The order came from the father. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do. I respectfully request my reinstatement.”

The petition also included the allegation that Erol Erkan traveled to the bank in his office car and made inspections even while President Erkan was in the US. In her petition, Büşra Bozkurt said of the father Erol Erkan: “What I find strange is that a room is reserved for him and that he can rule us in this way. He even gives orders to general managers. He can say, ‘If we don’t hurt them, we won’t be able to find employees’.”

Bozkurt claimed that Erol Erkan mobbed him and that he benefited from all kinds of facilities of the bank, and wrote that Erol Erkan came to the bank in his office car and made inspections even when President Erkan was in the USA.

In the petition, it was also argued that Erol Erkan used the vice president’s room, helped to take care of President Erkan’s baby with a private nanny in this room, but also displaced and fired many personnel with his instructions.