Babacan blames Erdoğan for 'resurrected' Kurdish problem, 'failed economy'

Photo: DEVA Party / Twitter

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Democracy and Progress (DEVA) Party Chair Ali Babacan has criticized the government over its policies on the Kurdish question and the economy.

"We said the current government resurrected the Kurdish issue. The government has eroded and is eroding all our gains. They began to bring Turkey back to the 1990s in every aspect," he told his party's district congress Bağlar, Diyarbakır, a predominantly Kurdish-populated province in the country's southeast.

"After we said 'They resurrected the Kurdish issue,' Mr. Erdoğan [Recep Tayyip, the president] said ... 'What Kurdish issue?' He said, 'There is no Kurdish issue in Turkey'," he remarked.

Babacan founded his party last March after leaving the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), where he served as the state minister responsible for the economy, deputy prime minister and foreign minister between 2002 and 2015.

At the time, the AKP was running what it called the "resolution process" to the Kurdish question, which was canceled following the period of conflict in the Kurdish-majority provinces in mid-2015 and early 2016.

The death of Ceylan Önkol

Babacan also remembered the death of Ceylan Önkol (12) by unexploded ordnance in Lice, Diyarbakır, in 2009, mentioning a recent court judgment that found the Ministry of Interior responsible for the incident.

"Last week, [an administrative court] found the ministry 90 percent at fault. Unfortunately, it laid 10 percent of the blame on a poor girl from Diyarbakır, who had gone out for collecting grass," he said.

"So, was the one who was responsible for that 90 percent fault disclosed. We haven't heard of it. There is a fault but no criminal. More painfully, Ceylan's family fought in courthouses for 12 years. I'm asking: Is this justice?" added Babacan. "Is this a state of law? ... The law is murdered in this country every day. Turkey doesn't deserve this."

Also mentioning the "economic reforms" announced by the president on Friday (March 12), Babacan said, "In the economic reform package, they miss the real problems that they need to solve. They ignore, deny them. When they talk, they talk like they came to power just yesterday.

"Mr. Erdoğan, you have been unsuccessful in the economy, both in the period of the pandemic and when there was no pandemic. The reason for your failure is your biased presidential system that you are very proud of and your mentality." (DŞ/VK)