Following Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's announcement that the government was planning to move the central bank to İstanbul, which Erdoğan termed the center of the country's growing economy, the issue has become almost a national matter. Sabah's Emre Aköz finds all the arguments that either favor or oppose relocation of the central bank meaningless. He criticizes the parties in these debates for forgetting that we are living in the age of technology. "The central bank does not provide credits. It has no relation to economic actors on the personal banking level. Hence it does not matter whether it is monitoring the markets from İstanbul or Kayseri or somewhere else, because all the transactions are conducted virtually," he explains. Aköz also disagrees with those claiming that the central bank of a country should be located in its capital. "This is not an argument based on concerns about the country's economy; it is totally political and ideological," he states.
Complaining about such trivial issues becoming hot topics in Turkey as if they are the country's most important problems, Radikal's İsmet Berkan does not share the concerns of those who fear that relocation of the central bank will undermine its autonomy. "If the deputy chairmen and monetary policy committee members who have been waiting for their appointment do not harm the bank's autonomy, but relocation of the bank, despite opposition from the central bank chairman and employees does, this is a real pity," he says.
Another columnist from Radikal, Hasan Celal Güzel, discusses both the potential advantages and disadvantages of relocating the central bank. As for advantages, he notes that since İstanbul is the center of the monetary market and all the finance and banking transactions are carried out in the city, it may be helpful to move the central bank to İstanbul in terms of economic benefits. For the disadvantages of relocation, he states that since Ankara is the capital of bureaucracy and the Treasury and Finance Ministry are located in the city, the bank's relations with the bureaucratic system in Ankara might become difficult, or even be severed, if it moves to İstanbul. According to Güzel, this and many other disadvantages outnumber the advantages of moving the bank, so it should continue to operate in Ankara.
