Former minister lost his life at age of 74

ANKARA

Kemal Derviş, Türkiye’s former economy minister, has died at the age of 74 in the hospital in Washington where he received treatment.

The former minister had been receiving Parkinson’s treatment in the U.S. for a while.

Derviş served as the Economy Minister during an economic crisis in 2000 and 2001, and then was elected as a deputy of the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

After receiving his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in economics from the London School of Economics in the U.K., he completed his doctorate at Princeton University in the U.S.

Derviş gave lectures at Middle East Technical University and Princeton University between 1973 and 1977.

Following that he joined the World Bank in 1977, Derviş was promoted to the vice president responsible for the Middle East and North Africa in this institution in 1996.

After two financial crises in November 2000 and February 2001, as he was invited to Türkiye, Derviş resigned his duty at the World Bank, which he had held for 22 years.

Derviş assumed position of economy minister in Bülent Ecevit’s government.

In August 2002, he resigned from his duty after having a disagreement with Devlet Bahçeli, deputy prime minister of the time.

Together with İsmail Cem, Zeki Eker and Hüsamettin Özkan, Derviş participated in the founding of the New Türkiye Party. However, he did not join this party and became a parliamentary candidate for the CHP.

He was elected as an Istanbul deputy in the Nov. 3, 2002, elections.

On May 9, 2005, he resigned from his position and was appointed as the head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

In 2009, he handed over this task to Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand.