Turkey needs “fresh start” says former close ally of Erdogan as he applies to register new party

Turkey needs “fresh start” says former close ally of Erdogan as he applies to register new party
The AKP era is over says Babacan. / https://alibabacan.com.tr/gallery/detail/44
By bne IntellIiNews March 9, 2020

Ali Babacan, a former close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on March 9 applied to register a new political party to challenge the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Turkey, declared Babacan, needed a “fresh start”.

Stressing the need for reforms to strengthen the rule of law and democracy, Babacan said in an interview broadcast live on Turkey’s Fox TV: “Nearly 20 years have passed [since the AKP was founded]... Turkey has changed and unfortunately the political party of which I was a member began to do things very contrary to its founding principles.”

Erdogan and the AKP are widely seen in Turkey as having bungled the economy and as dismay has grown about the end of the economic good times in the country, the anger at the severe erosion of human rights under the Erdogan administration has risen and become more apparent.

“There is a powerful need to create a more prosperous and liveable Turkey and this is not possible with the current political order,” Babacan, a 52-year-old former economy minister, foreign minister and deputy prime minister, added.

Dangers of “one man rule”

The criticisms made in the interview by Babacan were actually milder than remarks that he has made in recent months since it became known he was planning to challenge the AKP. In November, he warned of the dangers of “one man rule” and the “dark tunnel” Turkey finds itself in.

The falling popularity of the Islamist-rooted AKP was demonstrated in the spring local elections last year when the party lost a string of major cities to the main opposition and secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), including the capital Ankara and cultural and commercial capital Istanbul.

Babacan, a founding member of the AKP which has ruled Turkey since 2002, quit the party last July over “deep differences” about the direction it was taking. While serving as Turkey’s economic czar, he was generally seen as popular with foreign investors.

Babacan’s supporters on March 9 put in an official request to the Interior Ministry to establish the new party. Its name will be confirmed at a launch event on March 11, Reuters reported.

In December, another former close ally of Erdogan, former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, established the Future Party to take on the AKP.

Last week, pollster Metropoll published a report showing Erdogan’s job approval in Turkey down to 41.1% from 48% around October, the month in which he gave the order for a military incursion into northeast Syria.

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