The death of Kemal Derviş, Turkey’s former Minister of Economic Affairs, was announced Monday morning (May 8). Derviş was 74 and was known to have been battling Parkinsons in his final years.
An economist by trade and graduate of London School of Economics, Derviş worked at the World Bank for decades in various capacities before entering politics in the early 2000s. On March 12, 2001, Derviş became Minister of Economic Affairs under then-Turkish Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit. Derviş took the reigns at the Ministry during a time of financial crisis in Turkey that came on the heels of years of hyperinflation that saw the Turkish Lira reach 1,500,000 to the US Dollar. In this role, Derviş designed and oversaw a three-year economic recovery program that stretched into the early years of Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule. The economic prosperity enjoyed by Turkey in the early AKP years has been credited by many to this recovery program instituted by Derviş.
Derviş then served as a member of parliament representing Istanbul from November 2002 until his resignation in 2005. After his tenure in the Turkish parliament, Derviş served as an administrator for the United Nations Development Programme.
Derviş was the author of several books, including “For a Better Globalism” (2005), “General Equilibrium Models for Development Policy” (1982), and “Recovery from the Crisis and Contemporary Social Democracy” (2006).
