Three Turkish Cabinet Members Resign. Political Situation Goes to Confusion

On the 8th, three Turkish Cabinet members including the Deputy Prime Minister Husametin Ozkan showed their intention to resign asking for early general election: therefore, the Turkish political situation is in thick foggy state. What is more, those Cabinet members are known to withdraw from the Democratic Left Party (DLP) led by the Prime Minister Vulent Etzebit (77), so the DLP, which has been the majority at the Congress with 128 seats out of 550, has to give up the majority status to extreme right -wing party (MPH. 127 seats).

As a result, the Prime Minister Etzebit are facing a tremendous pressure of demands to resign from the Prime Minister and early general election. The Prime Minister Echebit has been asked to resign by his around since he was not able to perform his normal duties, and now he is hit by a severe political blow because he lost his political partner the Deputy Prime Minister Ozkan. The Turkish currency value dropped by 5% that day.

The conflict between the Prime Minister Etzebit and the Deputy Prime Minister Ozkan got worse since the Prime Minister publicly criticized the Deputy Prime Minister saying that the Deputy Prime Minister couldn’t quiet the critical public opinion about him.

The Minister of Culture Estemihan Talei, who showed his intention to resign with the Deputy Prime Minister said, “We need new political powers to revitalize the Turkish politics which is at stand still,” and “there will be more Cabinet members to resign.”

Sung-Kyu Kim kimsk@donga.com