Former Deputy PM Babacan to Erdoğan: Stop calling everyone a 'traitor'

Former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan has told his former ally and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to stop calling everyone a "traitor. "You can't blame the consequences of your errors on other people. You have to own up to your decisions," Babacan told Erdoğan during a speech on Feb. 22.

Monday February 22 2021 04:49 pm

Duvar English

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) leader Ali Babacan told his former ally President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to stop calling everyone a "traitor" during a speech on Feb. 22.

"This country's real enemy is unemployment. I want to call upon the government. Stop calling everyone a 'traitor,'" Babacan said. "You can't blame the consequences of your errors on other people. You have to own up to your decisions."

The government should focus on the real issues instead of trying to manipulate domestic politics, according to Babacan.

Babacan said there were rumors that it was the reveal by his party that notified the president of the real state of public finances under former Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, who is also Erdoğan's son-in-law.

Babacan was referring to rumors that Erdoğan would not know about the complete depletion of the Central Bank's $130 billion reserves and bank's negative net international reserve position, if it were not for his DEVA party.

"He wouldn't know about the state of the dollar or inflation. He probably found out from us that the state's liabilities from all of the republic's history doubled in two years," Babacan said.

"They've severed ties with the truth and reality. They don't know about the public's agenda, let alone about the destruction they caused themselves."

Poverty-related suicides became a pattern in Turkey under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the former deputy PM said, adding that the country has been impoverished like never before under the current government.