Turkey has become run by conspiracies, frequent constitutional amendments, early elections and intimidation of the July 2016 coup attempt, said former Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
All these factors have led to frail political and economic stability, he noted, stressing that the biggest mistake President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) could fall in is relying on borrowing policy.
In his interview with Turkish newspaper Karar on Monday, Gul slammed the policies adopted by his former party.
The past six years have seen major disagreements between Gul and Erdogan over the latter’s transformation of the country from a parliamentary to a presidential system (party state).
Gul has rejected this transformation from the beginning, noting that by approving the presidential system, Erdogan attempts to monopolize power and control all the reins of government.
“The rule in Turkey must be based on the principle of separating the authorities and granting them the required independence, without imposing tutelage from any party.”
“The strong parliamentary system is more suitable for ruling Turkey,” he stressed, reiterating similar statements.
“The ideal state of law and democracy in our country can only be achieved through a parliamentary system… This is the basic criterion for sustainable economic development,” he further noted.
“There is a lack of strategy based on the long term, on analysis and on expertise,” said Gul, adding that the situation was “worrying.”
In 2014, Erdogan deleted Gul’s name from the list of founders of the AKP. Since then, Gul has remained silent and distanced himself from engaging in regular political discussions.
However, he expressed his opinion on some issues such as the referendum on the constitutional amendment to approve the presidential system, amendment of the anti-terrorism law and when Erdogan insisted on re-holding local elections in Istanbul after the opposition candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, won in the first round on March 31, saying the move was against democracy.
He said the only thing currently keeping the country afloat was the foundation paved by the AKP’s early successes, in which the party dramatically cut inflation, pushed unemployment down, slashed government debt and boosted gross domestic product growth up to and above 10 percent.
But now “economic indicators are going seriously backwards.”
It is noteworthy that Gul supports former Deputy Premier Ali Babacan, who has recently founded the Democracy and Progress Party, without having any executive role in it.
