Turkey’s opposition should rediscover its strengths, former minister says

ISTANBUL

Kemal Derviş, who masterminded Turkey's economic recovery package after the financial crash in 2001, is the vice president of the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

The destructive and polarizing style of politics in Turkey should end and the opposition needs to eschew its focus on the recordings, former Turkish Economy Minister Kemal Derviş has said in a column published in the Financial Times.

Derviş, who is currently the vice president of the Brookings Institution, was critical of the current political proceedings.

Evaluating the results of the local elections, Derviş wrote that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had the advantage of facing an opposition that is split between three parties.

Recent tape recordings, which were heavily used in the oppositions’ election campaign against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, backfired by showing Erdoğan as “the victim of shadowy practices that no one found acceptable,” Derviş wrote.

Derviş explained the paths that the ruling and opposition parties should follow to make Turkey a democratic country and economically successful.

“Turkey’s center-left opposition must eschew its focus on the tapes, concentrate on the economy and rediscover the ability to speak for a large majority – and the strength – that it displayed in the 1970s. This alone could challenge Mr. Erdoğan’s monopoly on power and also help moderates within the AKP. It could also give confidence to Turkey’s Kurds and other groups such as the Alevis and practicing Sunnis,” Derviş wrote.