Turkey has new party for November election

Former Turkish foreign minister Ismail Cem Monday launched a new center-left pro-reform party to fight expected snap elections in November in the crisis-hit NATO country.

Financial markets wary that new turmoil could threaten a vital $16 billion IMF-backed crisis plan dipped, however, on weekend comments by ailing Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit that he viewed polls he agreed to only last week as a danger.

In an apparent about-turn, Ecevit raised the specter of mainstream parties losing votes and parties promoting political Islam and Kurdish separatism setting the tone in a new parliament -- a danger certainly not lost on the powerful army.

Cem, who recently quit the ailing Ecevit's government and Democratic Left Party (DSP), said however that his New Turkey Party was ready for polls; November was the moment.

"Turkey is running out of time," he told a party meeting.

Cem is one of a "Troika" of prominent figures behind the new party, which wants democratic reform, European Union membership and to ease the economic crisis.

Parliament will probably be recalled from summer recess this month or next month to formally call the polls and debate rights reforms needed in coming months to elicit encouragement from the EU in Turkey's bid for membership. An opposition bid to recall parliament Monday failed when it fell short of a quorum.

"We're here because we believe in the worth of our people," Cem told a party meeting. "If we can relieve Turkey, our people, our social institutions and social forces from their hindrances, we can lead Turkey to far-away targets...I hope this great march we have launched will be beneficial for our people."

New Turkey is made up currently of about 60 parliamentary deputies who deserted the DSP amid growing conflict in Ecevit's three-party coalition, furthered by the prime minister's own ill health. It has no national organization and would be hard-pressed to create one in this vast country before November.

It is viewed favorably by financial markets, the EU and NATO allies concerned for the stability of a key ally on the edge of the volatile Middle East.

They hope it can form at least the basis of a united centrist movement capable of wielding power and authority to see through economic and political reform.

At the center of their calculations is a member of the "Troika" still operating in the government, much to the anger of Ecevit's rightist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) partners -- Economy Minister Kemal Dervis, who sealed the IMF pact.

New Turkey may have its constituency, but it could struggle to win votes in rural Anatolia, where both Cem and Dervis could be viewed critically as the men responsible for their suffering. Neither Cem nor Dervis are forceful political orators.

The test for New Turkey is whether it can project itself as a party offering a political talent long absent from Turkish life, rather than, as critics would say, a group of opportunists seeking to save their skins as Ecevit's DSP collapses.

"We will work with our people, our tradesmen, merchants and our workers on one side, to create employment, but without punishing them by creating new taxes on employment and production," Cem said.

Ecevit played on fears existing parties could be "punished" for economic hardship and fail to reach the 10 percent threshold for parliamentary representation. Polls, he said, were a danger.

"I'm not opposing early polls just for the sake of our party," said Ecevit, whose DSP has lost half its deputies.

Markets were not happy with the volte face.

Turkey's stock index, which pulled back from months of steady descent after the agreement to hold early elections, dipped over three percent, and the lira slumped to 1,675,000 to the dollar from Friday's close at 1,667,000.

"The PM's comments about how he would like elections delayed to spring or maybe autumn 2003 give a divided picture among the coalition partners," Batuhan Ozsahin, analyst at Global Securities, said. "We have to really know that elections are going to be held in November."