Turkey’s main opposition party called on the government to accept the blame for a recent economic downturn, which it labelled as a crisis.
The government has tried to blame the country’s economic ills on foreign powers, the political opposition and even shopkeepers, while in fact the responsibility lies at its own door, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) said in televised comments at a meeting of his party in Istanbul on Monday.
“It is the people who have been ruling the country for 17 years who should be held responsible for the economic crisis,” he said. “We are now in the middle of the crisis, which has hit industry very recently. Unemployment will continue to go up.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has led a crescendo of criticism directed at unidentified foreign governments and investors for a currency crisis that peaked in August last year. The economy has since entered a quarterly contraction, inflation has surged to more than 20 percent and unemployment has jumped.
The government has taken steps including tax cuts and help for indebted businesses and consumers to soften the economic blow of the downturn ahead of nationwide local elections on March 31.
Kılıçdaroğlu said the government needed to respect the rule of law as a first step to calm jittery investors. It also must reverse a deterioration in democracy under a recently strengthened presidential system of government and re-empower parliament to deal with the country’s democratic problems.