Turkish Foreign Minister Joins Tide of Resignations

The government of ailing Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit was shaken anew Thursday as Turkey’s popular foreign minister announced his resignation.

Foreign Minister Ismail Cem’s defection dealt the most crippling blow yet to the crumbling three-party coalition government, which has seen six other Cabinet ministers quit this week.

More than 30 lawmakers also have left the 77-year-old Ecevit’s Party of the Democratic Left in protest over his insistence on clinging to power despite the illnesses that have kept him away from office for the last two months.

Hours after Cem confirmed that he was leaving office, Economy Minister Kemal Dervis also announced that he was stepping down. But Dervis withdrew his resignation a short time later.

Turkish officials and lawmakers said he changed his mind after President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, reportedly acting under pressure from the Bush administration, refused to accept the resignation, saying the departure would send financial markets, already spooked by weeks of uncertainty, into further disarray.

One reason for the U.S. intervention, according to a senior Turkish official who asked not to be identified, was fear that turmoil in Turkey would have a negative impact on other teetering emerging market economies, such as Argentina and Brazil.

Turkey’s political crisis is threatening to unravel an economic recovery program financed by the International Monetary Fund, or IMF. The stalemate has also stalled democratic reforms being sought by the European Union before it begins talks with Turkey, which is seeking to become a member. And it remains unclear whether Dervis’ retraction will suffice to keep Turkey’s awkward coalition of right- and left-wing parties in power.

Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission in Brussels, said Thursday that he was postponing a two-day official visit to Turkey that had been scheduled for next week. The EU said in a statement that the decision had been made in consultation with the Turkish authorities.

Cem was counted among Turkey’s longest-serving and most able foreign ministers. He is believed to be acting together with Husamettin Ozkan, a former deputy prime minister from Ecevit’s party, who sparked the rebellion when he announced his resignation Monday.

Western diplomats expressed hope that, if Ecevit falls, the pair can muster sufficient support from parliament to form a reformist government that could see the country through to the next elections. If Dervis should join this new “dream team”--as one EU diplomat who declined to be identified described Cem and Ozkan--Turkey probably would be assured of the IMF’s continued support.

The IMF became Turkey’s largest creditor after the Washington-based lending agency pledged about $17 billion in loans last year in exchange for economic reforms that are meant to end rampant corruption and streamline a debt-laden banking sector.

Adding to the pressure on Ecevit, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the ultranationalist wing of Ecevit’s coalition, began gathering signatures from lawmakers this week to convene a session of the 550-member Grand National Assembly to vote on whether to hold elections as early as November.

Bahceli is widely accused of blocking efforts to abolish the death penalty and to lift existing bans on broadcasting and education in the Kurdish language, steps sought by the EU. He commands the largest number of seats in parliament following the defections from Ecevit’s party.

Should Ecevit’s government collapse, Sezer probably would follow precedent and ask the leader of the party with the greatest number of seats in parliament to form a new government.

“If the nationalists succeed in forming the government, this would strengthen the hand of the anti-EU lobby,” said Hasim Hasimi, an ethnic Kurdish lawmaker and member of Ecevit’s coalition. “I rather hope they fail.”