Kemal Dervis, Turkish Economist and Statesman, Dies at 74

Former Turkish economy minister Kemal Dervis, August 21, 2002, in Ankara. Photo: EPA PHOTO EPA/TARIK TINAZAY

"I am saddened by the loss of our esteemed minister Kemal Dervis, whose work I value and who successfully represented our country in the world. I wish God's mercy on him, patience for his family and condolences to our country," Ali Babacan, leader of the DEVA Party and former deputy prime minister in charge of economy after Dervis, said.

Dervis died after years of struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Before joining the Turkish cabinet to handle economic developments after a major crisis in 2001, Dervis worked in several positions in the World Bank and the IMF for 22 years.

In 2001, on the invitation of then prime minister Bulent Ecevit, he become economy minister with extended powers to make major economic reforms closely working the IMF.

His reforms not only saved the economy but also paved the way for Turkish economic growth in the 2000s and early 2010s under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's governments, which then followed Dervis' strict economic policies.

In 2002, he was elected an MP for Istanbul for the social democratic Republican People's Party, CHP, but he resigned in 2005 to join the UN as chief administrator of the UN's Development Programme, UNDP.

After his post in the UNDP, he joined several Western and Turkish think tanks and lectured in several universities.

He was the author of a book entitled Recovery from the Crisis and Contemporary Social Democracy (2006). Dervis studied at the London School of Economics, LSE, in the UK, and at Princeton University in the US.