Nobody indispensable says Turkish PM after wide cabinet reshuffle

"Nobody is indispensable. There is no one who has no alternative," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said during a speech in the general assembly meeting of the Union of Turkish Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, or TOBB, in the capital Ankara.

In the largest cabinet change since the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, first came to power in 2002, eight ministers, those of justice, finance, energy, education, housing, industry, trade and housing, lost their posts on Friday.

"We should all know that these posts are temporary. Change is one of the basic dynamics of life," Erdogan told the meeting.

The cabinet reshuffle had been expected since local elections on March 29, in which the AKP won an easy victory but saw its popularity shrink for the first time since it swept to power.

The AKP, which has won all four elections in the past seven years, got 38.9 percent of the vote, almost eight points less than its previous electoral showing in 2007.

The outcome was widely seen as a warning to the government to focus on the economy and compromise with opponents.

The reshuffle comes also amid the bruising effects of global financial turmoil on the Turkish economy, which shrank 6.2 percent in the last quarter of 2008, sending unemployment up to a record 15.5 percent in January.