{"id":40038,"date":"2019-07-08T23:23:05","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T23:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40038"},"modified":"2019-07-08T23:23:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T23:23:05","slug":"former-minister-babacan-quits-ruling-party-in-blow-to-erdogan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40038","title":{"rendered":"Former Minister Babacan quits ruling party in blow to Erdogan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nANKARA:\u00a0Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday felt the first major political aftershock of his ruling party\u2019s defeat in last month\u2019s Istanbul election re-run with the resignation of the former deputy prime minister, Ali Babacan.<\/p>\n

\nThe politician\u2019s decision to quit the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and launch a breakaway movement, confirmed predictions of growing divides within the government following the opposition\u2019s victory in the June 23 vote.<\/p>\n

\nIn a written public statement, Babacan said: \u201cIt has become inevitable to start a new effort for Turkey\u2019s present and future. It is necessary to begin by opening new pages in all fields.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe 52-year-old former economic \u201cstar\u201d of the Turkish government until 2015, was one of the founders of the AKP, and had strong support at home and abroad during his time responsible for the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\nDozens of parliamentarians are now rumored to be preparing to resign from the AKP to join the new political movement. The party will reportedly have the support of Abdullah Gul, who was president of Turkey from 2007 until 2014.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt is striking that Ali Babacan\u2019s resignation from the AKP came on the same morning as another heavy downslide of the Turkish lira linked to the sacking of the Central Bank governor on Saturday due to divergences on the interest rates policy,\u201d Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\nAs an EU ambassador to Turkey, Pierini had multiple interactions with Babacan, and now as a private analyst of Turkey is often in touch with financial circles in the EU and the US.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe reality, then and now, is that Babacan\u2019s credibility on the world economic and financial stage is unsurpassed,\u201d Pierini said. By contrast, he added, the endless repetition of misguided theories about \u201clow interest rates bringing low inflation\u201d was sinking the Turkish lira yet again.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAt the same time, it is demonstrating that a one-man-rule system in a country with so much international exposure as Turkey \u2014 trade, investment, finance, education, and culture \u2014 does not work. In other words, a system in which rule of law has disappeared and dissenting voices are not tolerated, cannot lead Turkey to the path of stability and prosperity,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\nPierini said recent elections in the country, which had resulted in big city municipalities now being governed by opposition candidates, were signs of a profound call for change coming from within Turkey.<\/p>\n

\n

\nIt has become inevitable to start a new effort for Turkey\u2019s present and future. It is necessary to begin by opening new pages in all fields.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nAli Babacan, Former deputy prime minister<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nHaving received a bachelor\u2019s degree in industrial engineering, Babacan was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 1990 and attended the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he gained a master\u2019s degree in marketing, organizational behavior and international business.<\/p>\n

\nHe also worked at a Chicago-based company in financial consulting services, before returning to the Turkish capital Ankara.<\/p>\n

\nKarol Wasilewski, an analyst at the Warsaw-based Polish Institute of International Affairs, said Babacan\u2019s party had a chance of succeeding because Erdogan\u2019s leadership had never been fully tested.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cYet, it doesn\u2019t mean that we can take Babacan\u2019s success for granted as he will have to overcome a challenge connected to his lack of political charisma, and I think for the Turkish electorate this may still be more important than his economic achievements,\u201d he told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\nAnd analysts say it would be premature to suggest that Babacan could replace Erdogan in the country\u2019s 2023 presidential elections.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHis (Babacan\u2019s) political formation has a chance to take over some conservative voters, assuming Turkish economic troubles continue in the near future. Thus, if we define success in such terms, then yes, he has a chance to succeed,\u201d Wasilewski said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI assume Erdogan will try to block him from establishing the new party. We will have to wait for Babacan\u2019s words to become a reality,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara\u2019s chief public prosecutor recently ruled out a complaint by a former treasury civil servant accusing Babacan of \u201cterrorism\u201d for intentionally supporting the Gulen movement. The prosecutor decided that there was no evidence to warrant an investigation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANKARA:\u00a0Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday felt the first major political aftershock of his ruling party\u2019s defeat in last month\u2019s Istanbul election re-run with the resignation of the former deputy prime minister, Ali Babacan. The politician\u2019s decision to quit the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and launch a breakaway movement, confirmed predictions of growing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}