Turkey’s former deputy prime minister Ali Babacan said he was applying on Monday to launch his long-awaited political party, eight months after he resigned from President Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Babacan announced last July that he was resigning from the AKP over “deep differences” about its direction, and his move to establish a new party was seen as potentially eroding support for Erdogan’s party.
“We will confirm the party’s name at a launch program on Wednesday,” Babacan said, adding that his supporters would submit an application to the Interior Ministry on Monday to establish the party.
According to the Sozcu daily newspaper, he said the party’s charter had been prepared and that it would be “a mainstream party in the middle of the political spectrum.”
He told Sozcu that his party embraced democracy and the rule of law together with the aim of making Turkey a more livable place for its citizens.
“It is not possible to do this with this management [of the AKP]. It is not possible for this country to reach prosperity with this political style [of Erdogan’s]. There is a policy of fear. There is a politics that feeds on fears,” he was quoted as saying.
A founding member of the I AKP, which has ruled Turkey since 2002, Babacan served as economy and then foreign minister before becoming deputy prime minister, a role he held from 2009 to 2015.
Economic difficulties in the wake of a 2018 currency crisis ate into support for Erdogan’s support base. The AKP currently has to rely on an alliance with nationalists for its parliamentary majority.
In December, another one-time close ally of Erdogan, former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, established the Future Party to rival the AKP.
The Odatv.com news portal, which was recently blocked in Turkey, published a list of the names of some of the people involved in the founding of the party.
Some of the more notable names in the list include former Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin, former Minister of Science, Industry, and Technology Nihat Ergun, high profile AKP member, and former Interior Minister Besir Atalay as well as Mustafa Yeneroglu, an AKP MP, who recently resigned from the party.
Social media in Turkey was abuzz with the news that Babacan had finally begun the process of launching the party, which had long been expected.
Reuters, IPA
The post Erdogan’s ex ally Babacan applies to launch new party appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2020/03/09/erdogans-ex-ally-babacan-applies-to-launch-new-party/
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