'Gezi' defense from Ali Babacan: Prosecutor wrote my name

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DEVA Party Chair Ali Babacan, also a former Deputy Prime Minister from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), answered the questions of İsmail Küçükaya at FOX TV this morning (November 18).

After Babacan launched the "Korkma Türkiye" (Don't Fear Turkey) campaign on social media, he has been reminded of Gezi and the ensuing judicial process.

In response to these criticisms, Babacan has said that he was not a complainant or an intervening party in the lawsuit filed into Gezi, adding that the prosecutor apparently wrote the names of all members of the then government one by one considering that they must have been aggrieved by the incidents:

"In the Gezi Park case, the prosecutor, in a one-sided manner, considered all the then ministers to be an aggrieved party. In our judicial system, there is no such thing as withdrawing from the position of an aggrieved party. We sat and talked with our fellow legists. The prosecutor evaluated it one-sidedly, I did not file a complaint. I am not a plaintiff, nor am I an intervening party. I explained this before: I was not aggrieved, either."

'Government grants loans as support'

DEVA Party Chair Ali Babacan, also an economist himself, has also talked about the current situation of Turkey's economy.

"Small business owners, who already had difficulties in making ends meet, are all miserable now," Babacan has said. Referring to his visits to over 20 provinces so far and his talks with the business owners there, he has said, "All payments, all debt installments are still there. As for the government, it grants people more loans as support."

Indicating that "several powerful economies of the world have supported their business owners without expecting any payment in return," Babacan has reiterated that "there is no such opportunity in Turkey."

'Mistakes were made upon President's instructions'

He has also criticized President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the "economic crisis" in Turkey.

"They are talking about it as if it were other people who caused an economic crisis in the country and who did unlawful deeds and they themselves are the ones who will come and fix it," he has said, adding that "it is not that easy."

"The government is accountable for the economic crisis; who heads the government is obvious. All of the important decisions go to the President. If there is unlawfulness in the country, if the economy is managed wrongly, these mistakes are all made upon the instructions of the President."

Referring to Berat Albayrak, who has recently resigned from office as the Minister of Treasury and Finance, Ali Babacan has indicated that "when Erdoğan came into office as the President, he appointed his closest relative as the head of the economy." Accordingly, he has raised concerns that when Albayrak came into office, the national debt stood at 970 billion; however, it has now doubled and hit 1 trillion 860 billion.

'Bitter recipe means increasing taxes'

Babacan has also criticized Erdoğan over his remarks of a "bitter recipe" in the economy management. "Now, they are talking about a bitter recipe. And the citizen says, 'I did not do anything, I just cast a vote.' Why should this nation pay for your mistakes," Babacan has commented.

Asking "what a bitter recipe means in the economy literature," he has said, "A bitter recipe means an increase in taxes and prices. It means cutting the expenditures and keeping the income of pensioners, civil servants, workers and fixed-income owners under pressure."

(HA/SD)