I keep writing that the old business elite and the White Turks are incapable of understanding the new Turkey. They are blinded by their Kemalist and secularist prejudice, coupled with their thirst for privileges.
Their opposition to the appointment of Erdem Başçı as governor of the Central Bank of Turkey in 2006 and the later smear campaign against Durmuş Yılmaz, who was eventually appointed governor, clearly illustrate how poorly they see the new dynamics and new actors in Turkey. Today some of the Kemalist White Turks are ashamed of themselves, given the outstanding performance of these two economists leading the central bank.
Başçı is now the governor of the central bank. His appointment is yet another indication of the defeat of the so-called White Turks, who the new Turkey does not need.
Başçı’s appointment was vetoed in 2006 by the then Kemalist President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. The reason for this veto was that Başçı’s wife wore a headscarf. This “simple-minded” attitude back in 2006 tells us a lot about the poverty of the myopic White Turks. They were not looking for merit but checked whether he was religious or not, and for that looked at his wife’s choice of clothing.
It is not really difficult to understand why the Kemalist White Turks have lost. For them what matters is not merit and qualification but loyalty to the Kemalist ideology and the continuation of their privileges. They are educated but ignorant, and rich but poorly connected to society and the world around them.
The fact that the international financial sector increased Turkey’s credit rating on Başçı’s appointment is, I think, a slap in the face of the arrogant but incompetent White Turks, who had blocked his appointment as governor five years ago.
This is only one side of the situation. On the other side is a shameful episode brought on by the White Turks. Back in 2006, when Başçı was vetoed, the Kemalist president had no choice but to appoint another person, Yılmaz, as governor, but the appointment was accompanied by an immediate smear campaign. Journalists poked into his private life, revealing his house and his wife, publishing big pictures of shoes left outside the door. The self-proclaimed ideologue of the White Turks, Ertuğrul Özkök, then wrote in his column in the Hürriyet daily commentary on Yılmaz, his lifestyle, his wife and his house. It was disgusting. Even as I write these sentences I find myself scowling as if I were looking at those dirty, revolting campaigns conducted by Özkök’s Hürriyet.
The campaign against Yılmaz was a reflection of hatred and jealousy, implying that while there are “presentable” White Turks ripe for this prestigious job, the government nominates those “ordinary” Turks with Islamic lifestyles. Then and now I only feel pity for them. Pity on them who have lost their privileges, turning them into “ordinary” Turks like the ones they look down on. But these “ordinary” Turks who lost their privileges are not able to compete in the free market of ideas and skills with real “ordinary Turks.”
On succession in the Turkish Central Bank, the Wall Street Journal writes: “The new governor will take over an institution whose credibility with markets has improved dramatically over the past decade. Mr. Yılmaz’s five-year tenure saw Turkey’s inflation rate fall to record lows, while the economy rebounded strongly from the impact of a global recession.”
Poor White Turks, the person they tried to belittle has succeeded in running the central bank with first-rate performance. In doing so, Yılmaz’s main aide was Başçı, whose appointment was vetoed by the Kemalist president in 2006. No doubt Yılmaz was one of the best governors in the world and, as a result, was recognized as the best central bank governor by Euromoney in 2009.
Their opposition to the appointment of Erdem Başçı as governor of the Central Bank of Turkey in 2006 and the later smear campaign against Durmuş Yılmaz, who was eventually appointed governor, clearly illustrate how poorly they see the new dynamics and new actors in Turkey. Today some of the Kemalist White Turks are ashamed of themselves, given the outstanding performance of these two economists leading the central bank.
Başçı is now the governor of the central bank. His appointment is yet another indication of the defeat of the so-called White Turks, who the new Turkey does not need.
Başçı’s appointment was vetoed in 2006 by the then Kemalist President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. The reason for this veto was that Başçı’s wife wore a headscarf. This “simple-minded” attitude back in 2006 tells us a lot about the poverty of the myopic White Turks. They were not looking for merit but checked whether he was religious or not, and for that looked at his wife’s choice of clothing.
It is not really difficult to understand why the Kemalist White Turks have lost. For them what matters is not merit and qualification but loyalty to the Kemalist ideology and the continuation of their privileges. They are educated but ignorant, and rich but poorly connected to society and the world around them.
The fact that the international financial sector increased Turkey’s credit rating on Başçı’s appointment is, I think, a slap in the face of the arrogant but incompetent White Turks, who had blocked his appointment as governor five years ago.
This is only one side of the situation. On the other side is a shameful episode brought on by the White Turks. Back in 2006, when Başçı was vetoed, the Kemalist president had no choice but to appoint another person, Yılmaz, as governor, but the appointment was accompanied by an immediate smear campaign. Journalists poked into his private life, revealing his house and his wife, publishing big pictures of shoes left outside the door. The self-proclaimed ideologue of the White Turks, Ertuğrul Özkök, then wrote in his column in the Hürriyet daily commentary on Yılmaz, his lifestyle, his wife and his house. It was disgusting. Even as I write these sentences I find myself scowling as if I were looking at those dirty, revolting campaigns conducted by Özkök’s Hürriyet.
The campaign against Yılmaz was a reflection of hatred and jealousy, implying that while there are “presentable” White Turks ripe for this prestigious job, the government nominates those “ordinary” Turks with Islamic lifestyles. Then and now I only feel pity for them. Pity on them who have lost their privileges, turning them into “ordinary” Turks like the ones they look down on. But these “ordinary” Turks who lost their privileges are not able to compete in the free market of ideas and skills with real “ordinary Turks.”
On succession in the Turkish Central Bank, the Wall Street Journal writes: “The new governor will take over an institution whose credibility with markets has improved dramatically over the past decade. Mr. Yılmaz’s five-year tenure saw Turkey’s inflation rate fall to record lows, while the economy rebounded strongly from the impact of a global recession.”
Poor White Turks, the person they tried to belittle has succeeded in running the central bank with first-rate performance. In doing so, Yılmaz’s main aide was Başçı, whose appointment was vetoed by the Kemalist president in 2006. No doubt Yılmaz was one of the best governors in the world and, as a result, was recognized as the best central bank governor by Euromoney in 2009.
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