Mr. Erdogan Will See You Now: Welcome to Banking’s Toughest Job

Erdem Basci’s biggest accomplishment may be that people still talk about the independence of Turkey’s central bank.

The 49-year-old former academic was one of the world’s most innovative and unpredictable central bankers during a five-year term that ended Tuesday and wasn’t renewed. He was also one of the most beleaguered, criticized by investors for missing inflation targets every year, and berated by his prime minister-then-president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as a traitor, a failure and the government’s primary obstacle to reaching ambitious economic goals.