What is the Turgut Özal, Kemal Derviş, and Mehmet Şimşek line?

Turkey wakes up to new price hikes every day. The Minister of Treasury and Finance (who is also a British citizen), unable to find the resources he hoped for from abroad, keeps burdening the working class with price hikes and taxes. He is implementing an IMF program that does not bear the name IMF. In this respect, it is a continuation of the Kemal Derviş line. He signed off on the same or similar practices during his previous ministerial term. One should not expect him to act differently this time. Turkey has known the policies he follows closely since 1980 and the January 24 decisions. Their architect is Turgut Özal.

Turgut Özal, the author of that era's economic program based on consumption rather than production, and on imports rather than exports, implemented his program in the shadow of the September 12 coup, which was supported by US imperialism. The polished words he constantly used—liberalism, a free-market economy based on competition, integration with the world, and opening up to the world—could not mask the deep poverty, the high cost of living, the gap between classes, and the widespread corruption in our country. However, Özal influenced not only the right of the center but also the left. He created a large, open, and secret fan base within the CHP, SHP, and DSP. Among those he influenced were once-sharp leftists and radical revolutionaries. They are a large crowd that pretends to be on the left and lives off the left. They are numerous in academia, the media, professional organizations, trade unions, and bar associations.

This economic picture has polluted politics and rendered it characterless. It has accelerated social decay, degeneration, and collapse. Because it is a rule: as inflation rises, human and moral values fall.

For many years, Turkey has had a tax and fiscal policy that prefers prioritizing indirect taxes over direct taxes in tax revenues. It avoids discussions regarding whether taxes should be progressive or regressive. It refrains from debating whether the bulk of tax revenues should be obtained from indirect or direct taxes. It stays away from discussions on whether the majority of tax revenues should come from income and corporate taxes or consumption taxes. It does not even mention wealth taxes or the Tobin tax.

Yet, it is a simple rule: if the ratio of consumption taxes and indirect taxes is high among tax revenues in a country, income distribution is distorted. Turkey is also always among the top countries in the world in terms of income inequality.

When Turkey talks about the economy, it does not talk about investment, production, employment, or exports. It talks about rent, repo, the stock market, interest rates, and foreign exchange. It does not talk about industry, agriculture, or economic externalities. It talks about hot money and the interest on foreign debt. It does not talk about the low share of labor in the national income or the low share of agriculture in the national income. It talks about speculative gains. It does not talk about the structural causes of high inflation, high interest rates, high debt, high unemployment, and high foreign trade deficits. It talks about where it can find foreign debt and what it can privatize. This, of course, has inevitable consequences.

The Turkish economy is addicted to foreign debt. It is overly sensitive and fragile to external shocks and crises in global markets. In addition to these, Turkey has deindustrialized over the last quarter-century. It has become an economy that cannot create employment even during periods of growth. The rich have become richer, the poor have become poorer, and the middle classes have eroded. Alongside other factors, migration from rural to urban areas has accelerated due to poverty and the decline in agriculture, which has negatively affected not only the economy but also the social, political, and urban structure. Arable agricultural land has shrunk, and the population remaining in agriculture has both decreased and aged.

Today, while the polish of the globalization process has worn off, capitalism is being questioned more loudly and openly. Protectionism, state intervention, strengthening national economies, and limiting the transfer of resources out of the country are coming to the fore. Under these conditions, it is essential to increase and encourage the quality of domestic production and to develop a consciousness of savings. In addition to a tax reform that spreads the tax base and prioritizes tax justice, a relentless fight against the informal economy and informal employment is also essential. Efficient, productive, and conscious public leadership is required in large, profitable, and strategic sectors such as energy, transportation, and communication.

Therefore, Turkey must put a populist and statist economy, public ownership, and planning back on its agenda. Just as Republicanism requires this, Turkey achieved high momentum in the economy, industrialization, and development with very distinguished and successful examples of this in the early years of the Republic.