AKP deputy chair responds to ex-minister’s remarks

ISTANBUL

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy chairman Mahir Ünal has responded to remarks made by former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan is preparing to launch a new political party in a rare interview.

Babacan, who resigned from the AKP in July, was interviewed on private broadcaster Habertürk on Nov. 26 after a long break where he criticized the policies of his former party.

Ünal stated that the AKP is both stable and has solved the most fundamental problems in Turkey after coming to power and described the AKP as a political movement that approached the issue of solving “the terror problem.”

Referring to previous remarks of Erdoğan, who said, “Those who got off the train, cannot come back,” Ünal said, “We have seen what arguments put forward by those who got off.”

“So you don’t mention July 15 [ 2016 coup attempt] and terrorism at all, you don’t mention changes in the EU, you don’t interpret the region, you will not say anything new about foreign policy, [but] you say that you have developed a new language. There is no such a thing like that,” Ünal said on a television program on private broadcaster NTV on Nov. 27.

Ünal said that it is not possible to find anything remarkable in Babacan's statements, adding that Babacan “defends the outdated neoliberal theses.”

“As the AKP, we will continue on our path. I don't see this as an issue that we need to talk about,” Ünal added.