Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fired his trade minister in an attempt to mitigate the damage from growing accusations of widespread nepotism in the government.
Turkey’s Commerce Minister faces accusations of nepotism
Ruhsar Pekcan was dismissed on Wednesday with a midnight decree by Erdogan after she allegedly favored her husband’s company in government tenders. The president appointed Mehmet Mus, a parliamentary whip of his ruling AK Party, as his replacement.
The abrupt dismissal of the head of commerce suggests that Erdogan did not want to waste time to end a new outpouring of discontent over the government’s economic management, which had been led by his son-in-law until his resignation in November. The president’s approval ratings have been reduced to the last seen in 2019, when his ruling party lost municipal races in Turkey’s largest cities.
Pekcan became a liability after the OdaTV website reported over the weekend that the Ministry of Commerce bought disinfectants worth 9 million lire ($ 929,000) from two companies owned by her husband.
The ex-minister on Tuesday denied any wrongdoing in a statement, saying the ministry made purchases worth half a million lire from her husband’s company because it submitted the lowest bids.
Its exit is not expected to lead to an imminent change in policies covering tariffs and bilateral investment agreements.
Mini Reorder
The president took the opportunity of Pekcan’s resignation to make other staff changes in the cabinet. He split the Ministry of Family and Labor in two, replacing outgoing Minister Zehra Zumrut Selcuk. Erdogan appointed Derya Yanik, a member of her party’s Istanbul branch and currently the only member of the women’s government, as family minister. Vedat Bilgin, a former AK Party legislator and adviser to the president, was appointed Minister of Labor.
– With the assistance of Selcan Hacaoglu and Cagan Koc
(Updates with more details in the first paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected the name of a ministry in the fourth paragraph.)