Global Policy Forum

By Suzan Fraser

Thousands of people rallied in major Turkish cities Saturday to protest a government recovery plan backed by the International Monetary Fund that they say will bring further hardship for workers. In the Black Sea port city of Samsun, police beat protesters with truncheons to break up the rally after demonstrators ignored orders to disperse, private NTV television said, but there were no reports of trouble elsewhere.

Turkey and the IMF have reached agreement on a preliminary recovery plan to stabilize inflation and revive market confidence following a financial crisis that led to the fall of the Turkish lira and price rises. The lira has lost about a third of its value. The protesters - mainly members of labor and public service employees unions - fear that an IMF program will force workers to make further sacrifices.

They called instead for wage compensation due to the depreciation of the lira, taxes on capital instead of on salaries, and for the government to work toward rescheduling billions of dollars of short-term domestic and foreign debt, the Anatolia news agency reported. In Ankara, the protesters danced to folk songs and shouted: "IMF get out, this country is ours" and "We refuse to be a society of poverty."

The protests came as government officials met with workers and employers' groups just a few hundred feet away to secure backing for the new economic program. A statement released at the end of the meeting said the program would aim to bring inflation down to single-digit figures and "achieve social justice by improving income distribution." It gave no time frame. Inflation stands at around 30 percent.

Turkey's new economy minister, Kemal Dervis, is pushing a package of reform through parliament to gain much-needed international backing. The package includes restructuring debt-ridden state banks and rapid privatization. The IMF and other foreign lenders want to see Turkey make progress on reforms before agreeing to any kind of financial support.

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