Turkey's Economy Chief Quits to Build Powerful Election Alliance

ANKARA, Aug 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In a new blow to embattled Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, Turkey's popular Economy Minister Kemal Dervis, the architect of vital IMF-backed reforms, resigned Saturday, August 10, 2002, to build a powerful bloc of pro-Western liberal forces ahead of early elections on November 3.

The move came as no surprise since Dervis, 53, openly declared his intentions to unite Turkey's fractured center-left and woo center-right groups into a strong electoral alliance.

If he succeeds in persuading old-time rivals to make peace and join forces, he could boost the chance to give Turkey, a NATO member and a candidate for European Union membership, a stable government as it tackles crucial economic and political goals, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Dervis, an independent technocrat, has been under pressure from the Prime Minister to either resign or drop his initiative, which Ecevit opposes despite bleak election prospects for his Democratic Left Party (DSP), one of the several groups on the center-left.

"We need a strong government after the elections. Turkey has a difficult path ahead of it," Dervis told reporters as he announced his resignation, AFP reported.

"After evaluating the situation, I now resign," Dervis said Saturday morning, according to BBC’s online news service.

"I will work for the creation of a choice on the center-left that reflects modern social liberal theory and that could come to power on its own."

Being widely expected, Dervis’s resignation is unlikely to have much impact on Turkey's unstable financial markets, according to the BBC.

He denounced Turkey's fractured political establishment, where both the mainstream left and right have split up, mainly over personal rivalries, producing a succession of weak coalition governments.

"The current political fragmentation is a very serious problem and I think we must definitely overcome it. This is what I am trying to achieve. Please wish me luck," Dervis said.

The fragmentation enabled an opposition with roots in a banned Islamic movement, the Justice and Development Party (AK), to lead opinion polls with only about 20 percent of the vote.

Mainstream parties, meanwhile, are struggling for the 10-percent national threshold required to enter parliament, according to the polls.

An election victory for AK could have stormy repercussions in the mainly Muslim country, where the powerful army staunchly guards the strictly secular system and was instrumental in ousting the first Islamic government in 1997.

A stable pro-Western team in Ankara is seen as crucial as Turkey seeks to open membership talks with the EU and when a possible U.S. attack on neighboring Iraq could pose new risks for the crisis-hit economy.

Dervis did not specify whether he would join the New Turkey party, recently launched by the popular former Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and about 60 other MPs who abandoned Ecevit last month.

Cem and Dervis, dubbed Turkey's "Dream Team," announced last week they would try to create a powerful election bloc to ensure that "a modern majority, a modern and innovative approach gains the maximum power" in the poll.

For his part, Cem said Saturday he expected Dervis to join the New Turkey party and "give it a new momentum."

Dervis, a former World Bank vice president, enjoyed high credibility since March 2001 when he returned home to take over the reins of Turkey's stricken economy.

He drafted a recovery plan that won 16 billion dollars (17-billion-euro) in loans from the |International Monetary Fund (IMF). He then presided doggedly over the far-reaching reforms that restricted political meddling in the economy, which, coupled with widespread corruption and cronyism, contributed to Turkey's financial woes.

Financial experts said Dervis's resignation was expected to cause only a minimal, short-lived fall on the markets, which will now focus on the success of his political efforts.

Turmoil plagued Ankara since May when the 77-year-old Ecevit fell ill and his coalition hit a deadlock over democracy reforms demanded by the EU, prompting the prime minister to reluctantly agree to advancing elections scheduled for April 2004.

The EU will keep a close eye on the outcome. The emergence of a strong pro-Western government could improve chances that a date for the start of Turkey's accession talks will be set at the EU Copenhagen summit in December - notably after Turkish lawmakers last week adopted ground-breaking democracy reforms to strengthen the EU bid.