Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) leader Ali Babacan has claimed that Turkey is paying the price of a governance devoid of reason and that the country is headed towards a dead end, the T24 news website reported.
In a live interview he gave to T24’s Murat Sabuncu on Friday morning, Babacan said Turkey has been paralyzed in the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic as the government has been isolated by years of ethnocentric and xenophobic rhetoric in its foreign policy.
“This crisis can only be overcome through international solidarity,” he said. You cannot go it alone, neither financially nor from a health perspective.”
Babacan also predicted an exacerbation of Turkey’s economic troubles and national impoverishment as a result of the outbreak.
“Prior to the crisis, several central banks across the world had set up networks among themselves. It was expanded following the outbreak. Most G-20 countries are included, while Turkey has been left out of this solidarity.”
He also slammed the early release law passed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to ease overcrowding in prisons amid the outbreak for being “unfair.”
“It is a realty that the ruling party’s smaller partner had special requests about this law,” he said, referring to the AKP’s ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). “The law was drafted from their point of view. If we are talking about people’s right to freedom and justice, it is unacceptable that the law is designed for their narrow circle.”
Babacan also criticized the functioning of the country’s parliament which he said has turned into a ‘lawmaking machine.’
“Things need to be discussed thoroughly in democracies. The parliament is not supposed to be a machine to carry out the desires of a small group of people.”
Formerly a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Babacan resigned from the AKP last July, citing concerns and disagreements over its direction.
After months of rumors circulating about his plans to establish a new party to challenge the AKP’s 17-year rule, he unveiled DEVA in March.