When the International Monetary Fund published a critical annual report on Turkey on Monday, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government reacted angrily and said it was part of a conspiracy cooked up with opposition parties.

Recommendations in the report were strikingly similar to the conditions set by the IMF for its stand-by agreement after a economic crisis hit Turkey in 2001, said former central bank governor and opposition nationalist member of parliament Durmuş Yılmaz, who spoke to the fund’s delegation.

AKP spokesman Ömer Çelik led a campaign enthusiastically taken up by pro-government media to paint the IMF meeting with Yılmaz and Faik Öztrak, a member of parliament for the secular main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), as clandestine talks to plot against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government.

But the IMF delegation met the two opposition politicians openly at the Hilton hotel in central Ankara and both politicians have served in key positions overseeing Turkey’s economy.

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