Babacan: 'Erdogan will not remain in office until 2023'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends cabinet meeting via video conference at the Turkish Presidency’s Huber Mansion in Istanbul, Turkey on 20 April 2020. [Murat Kula/Anadolu Agency]

Ali Babacan, leader of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Economy, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will not remain in power until 2023.

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar quoted Babacan saying that the “price of keeping Erdogan in office after 2023 will be very high.”

The leader of the DEVA ruled out early elections, saying Erdogan would not be willing to give up power by opening polls.

Babacan criticised Erdogan’s economic and political policies, noting that Turkey’s financial resources are running out and the central bank resorted to printing currency in an effort to stabilise the economy.

In early March Babacan launched a new party to rival Erdogan’s. He left the AKP in July last year after outlining a number of differences and disagreements with the ruling government regarding the rule of law, democracy and its economic policies.

Turkey: Straightforward resignation of a minister or a fight over power?

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.