...On November 7th Erdoğan sacked the central-bank governor and replaced him with one of Mr Albayrak’s rivals. A day later, an indignant Mr Albayrak, once touted as his father-in-law’s prospective successor, stepped down. Since then the lira has responded with its best weekly performance
(a 10% rally) for two decades.
Mr Erdogan had to surrender to market pressure and sack Mr Albayrak. “There was a real chance that the thing would have snowballed and you would have a full-blown currency crash” unless Turkey’s leader had changed course, says Paul McNamara of GAM Investments. Another option would have been to seek help from the IMF, something Mr Erdogan had previously ruled out. The president would also have had to pay a political price. A group of 30 to 40 ruling-party parliamentarians is said to have threatened to defect to the opposition unless Mr Albayrak resigned. The overhaul of Mr Erdogan’s economic team has at least bought him some breathing space, says Ugur Gurses, a Turkish economist.
It may also help Turkey’s leader to cope with the loss of a good friend in Washington. For the past four years Mr Erdogan has been able to count on Donald Trump to look away while Turkey evicted American troops from parts of north-eastern Syria, clashed with European allies in the Mediterranean, deployed Syrian mercenaries to Libya and Azerbaijan, and locked up thousands of people on terror charges thinner than baklava dough. Mr Trump also shielded Turkey from sanctions over its purchase of an S-400 air-defence system from Russia.
He/trump may have tried to hold up an investigation into a Turkish state bank accused of laundering Iranian money.
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