Fear and Loathing in Erdogan’s Palace

Turkish Finance Minister’s Instagram Farewell: the Unmaking of the Erdogan Dynasty?

Erdogan’s axing of his son-in-law after Biden’s win in the U.S. reveals the reign of anxiety over the next course of the Turkish-U.S. relationship amid fears of sanctions against Halkbank.

The whole world, the New York Times accurately reported, held its breath when more than 150 million American voters cast their ballots on a historic election last Tuesday. The identity of the next occupant of the Oval Office was important beyond any definition and who won the election mattered more than anything else, given its world-wide ramifications for international politics, not just for the American domestic affairs. For this particular reason, countries around the world divided along the lines of Trump and Biden in accordance with their respective national interests. They prayed, they wished, and they waited in anxiety. The state of limbo was no deeper in Turkey than anywhere else.

The Biden win unleashed a political earthquake in Turkey where months of rooting for the re-election of Donald J. Trump is now tempered by the sober realization of a new course of relations ahead. A day before Biden’s victory speech on Saturday in Wilmington, Delaware, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan removed Central Bank Chief Murat Uysal from his post. Late on Sunday, entire Turkey was rattled by the resignation of Berat Albayrak, Erdogan’s son-in-law and the finance minister overseeing the wobbly Turkish economy, via his Instagram account. For days, no mainstream media outlet covered Albayrak’s unceremonious leave. The double-slaying of both figures, according to observers, was not completely independent of Biden’s presidential election. It was, many pointedly think, a direct fallout of the election result.

Among many other things, the president’s incompetent minister was responsible for establishing a direct channel with the Trump White House through Jared Kushner, bypassing the traditional channels of communication. What Biden's presidency would augur is of no secret for the Turkish administration where a personal bond between Erdogan and…