Turkish politician Haydar Baş dies of COVID-19

ISTANBUL

Turkish politician Haydar Baş died on April 14 after contracting the novel coronavirus. He was 73.

Baş, the leader of the Independent Turkey Party (BTP), was in intensive care in a state hospital in the Black Sea province of Trabzon.

The politician was buried in his family cemetery after funeral prayers in the Akçaabat district.

Baş had entered politics in the early 1970s and took part in the National Salvation Party (MSP) led by Necmettin Erbakan.

However, he left the party when his views diverged from Erbakan’s and followed a line of politics that was not very popular in Turkey.

He founded a new political party, the BTP, in 2001 and took the lead.

The party received around 0.36 percent of the vote in the last local elections last year.

Baş, one of the important names of a branch of the Kadiri Islamic sect, is known for his finance package, which he launched as the “National Economy Model,” but which economy experts could not make much sense of.