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Erdogan Names Erkan to Head Türkiye Central Bank

Hafize Gaye Erkan. Photo: Bloomberg
Hafize Gaye Erkan. Photo: Bloomberg
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Erdogan Names Erkan to Head Türkiye Central Bank

Hafize Gaye Erkan. Photo: Bloomberg
Hafize Gaye Erkan. Photo: Bloomberg

President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday appointed Hafize Gaye Erkan, a finance executive in the United States, to head Türkiye's central bank as it prepares to reverse course and tighten policy after years of rate cuts and a simmering cost-of-living crisis.

Erkan, former co-CEO at First Republic Bank and managing director at Goldman Sachs, takes the reins after Erdogan's re-election on May 28 and just under a week after he signaled a pivot away from unorthodoxy with a new cabinet.

The fifth central bank chief in four years, the 43-year-old replaces Sahap Kavcioglu, who spearheaded Erdogan's rate-cutting drive that set off a historic currency crash in 2021 and sent inflation to a 24-year peak above 85% last year.

The announcement of Erkan's appointment in the Official Gazette was accompanied by a decision to appoint Kavcioglu as head of the country's BDDK banking watchdog.

Erkan's leanings are unclear given she has no formal monetary policy experience in her career spanning Wall Street and US corporate boardrooms. She has a Ph.D. from Princeton University in financial engineering.

She was at First Republic from 2014-2021, according to her LinkedIn profile. This year, it became the largest US bank to fail since 2008 after it was seized by regulators and sold to JPMorgan.

Türkiye 's central bank has had its independence all but stamped out in recent years by Erdogan. A self-proclaimed "enemy" of interest rates, he pressed it to deliver stimulus and was quick to replace governors.

The policy rate was slashed to 8.5% from 19% in 2021, leaving real rates deeply negative and the lira largely managed by dozens of regulations covering credit and foreign exchange. Yet after Erdogan survived his toughest political test in the May 28 runoff vote, he on Saturday named Mehmet Simsek, a well-respected and orthodox former finance minister, as minister in charge of the economy.

Amid record low foreign reserves of -$5.7 billion, the lira has hit all-time lows this week, plunging 7.2% on Wednesday, and traded at 23.5010 against the dollar after Erkan's appointment.

According to Reuters, analysts said the return of Simsek and the appointment of Erkan set the stage for rate hikes, which could reattract foreign investors after an exodus in recent years.

The apparent U-turn on the economy comes as many analysts anticipate turmoil given depleted foreign reserves, unchecked inflation and wide current account deficits.

The economy's prospects depend on how much independence Erdogan grants Erkan and Simsek, analysts said. In the past, he has embraced orthodoxy, only to quickly double back.

The last central bank governor to raise rates, Naci Agbal, was fired in 2021 after less than five months on the job.

"It is unclear for how long Erdogan may tolerate a more pragmatic stance on the economic front, given the priority he assigns to the March 2024 local elections," said Wolfango Piccoli of Teneo. The ruling AK Party aims to recapture big cities from opposition control in those elections.

Erkan is on Marsh McLennan's board and was named CEO at Greystone, a real estate finance and investment firm, last year.

During her career in New York City, she gained a reputation as "tough, smart, and effective," said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City nonprofit, where Erkan once served as a director.

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Death Toll from Catastrophic Flooding in Texas over the July Fourth Weekend Surpasses 100

A portion of Highway 1340 is covered by the Guadalupe River in the aftermath of deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)
A portion of Highway 1340 is covered by the Guadalupe River in the aftermath of deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)
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Death Toll from Catastrophic Flooding in Texas over the July Fourth Weekend Surpasses 100

A portion of Highway 1340 is covered by the Guadalupe River in the aftermath of deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)
A portion of Highway 1340 is covered by the Guadalupe River in the aftermath of deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)

The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over the July Fourth weekend surpassed 100 on Monday as search-and-rescue teams continued to wade into swollen rivers and use heavy equipment to untangle trees as part of the massive search for missing people.

Authorities overseeing the search for flood victims said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the flooding that killed at least 104.

The officials spoke only hours after the operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, announced that they lost 27 campers and counselors to the floodwaters. Kerr County officials said 10 campers and one counselor were still unaccounted for Monday.

Searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, in the county home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, officials said.

With additional rain on the way, more flooding still threatened saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise.

The raging flash floods, among the nation’s worst in decades, slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling sleeping people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.

Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators and coolers littered the riverbanks Monday. The debris included reminders of what drew so many to the campgrounds and cabins in the Hill Country — a volleyball, canoes and a family portrait.

Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, local officials said.

Among those confirmed dead were 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who were at Camp Mystic and a former soccer coach and his wife who were staying at a riverfront home. Their daughters were still missing.

Calls for finding why warnings weren't heard

Authorities vowed that one of the next steps would be investigating whether enough warnings were issued and why some camps did not evacuate or move to higher ground in a place long vulnerable to flooding that some local residents refer to as “flash flood alley.”

That will include a review of how weather warnings were sent out and received. One of the challenges is that many camps and cabins are in places with poor cellphone service, Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said.

“We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things,” he said. “We’re looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete.”

Some camps were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said recent government spending cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service did not delay any warnings.

“There’s a time to have political fights, there’s a time to disagree. This is not that time,” Cruz said. “There will be a time to find out what could been done differently. My hope is in time we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood.”

The weather service first advised of potential flooding on Thursday and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare step that alerts the public to imminent danger.

Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Some residents said they never received any warnings.

President Donald Trump, who signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County and plans to visit the area, said Sunday that he does not plan to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year.

“This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it,” the president said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said local and federal weather services provided sufficient warnings.

“That was an act of God. It’s not the administration’s fault that the flood hit when it did, but there were early and consistent warnings,” Leavitt said.

More than three dozen people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing, Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday.

Search-and-rescue crews at one staging area said Monday that more than 1,000 volunteers had been directed to Kerr County.

Little time to escape floods

Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her.

“Then they were able to reach their tool shed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their tool shed, and they all rode it out together,” Brown said.

Elizabeth Lester, a mother of children who were at Camp Mystic and nearby Camp La Junta during the flood, said her young son had to swim out his cabin window to escape. Her daughter fled up the hillside as floodwaters whipped against her legs.