For Gazi Ercel life at the helm of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey has been a fast moving sequence of spectacular pursuits and narrow escapes, sea changes and dire straits, hair- pin bends and sharp drops. His may well be the greatest adventure in the history of central banking. To start with, in just over four years as central banker he has worked with five governments and 11 economy ministers. Meanwhile, the Treasury lost five secretaries general, and may be on the verge of losing the incumbent, Selcuk Demiralp, who has been rumoured to be on the point of resigning for months.
The saga includes suicide, military intervention, the first Islamic prime minister in a NATO country, and the worst international financial crisis since World War II.
Ercel's unusual career as a central banker started in April 1996 when he got the job from Mrs Tansu Ciller, the country's first woman prime minister. Ciller - a professor of economics and, by general agreement, one of the most inefficient economic managers the country has seen - spent central bank governors as if they were going out of fashion.