Erdoğan sticks to old guard

On the first day of 2009, Erdoğan announced Melih Gökçek as his candidate for Ankara mayor, Asım Güzelbey for Gaziantep and Ahmet Küçükler for Erzurum. He obviously had doubts in these provinces. Plenty of opinion polls and delaying his announcement revealed his concerns in the deep. It was also known that party members had troubles with these names who fail to have the support of the party establishment and parliamentary deputies. So alternatives were being looked for in the AKP. Alright, but why did Erdoğan decide to go ahead with them, although he is not much willing?

At the beginning, the AKP had tended toward winning the bastions of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, and the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP. Erdoğan wanted to win the provinces such as Diyarbakır, Batman, İzmir, Trabzon, Eskişehir in addition to the Çankaya county in Ankara. In these cities, however, ambitious candidates did not come forward. Even in Diyarbakır, the AKP couldn’t find anyone to nominate and had to announce Abdurrahman Kurt for the city. Economic crisis, corruption claims, rival candidates and opinion polls that were not going well for the AKP pushed Erdoğan to go for a tactical change. So he adopted a strategy to protect his own castles rather than take over that of the others. Although this tactic may not maintain the 47 percent AKP won in 2007 general elections, it could at least prove the 41 percent victory of the 2004 local elections in which the AKP won a total of 51 provinces, 12 of which are big cities, 468 counties and 1,247 villages.

SECOND ARTICLE

Alevis send invites to non-Muslims

The only solid AKP opening toward Alevis was an Alevi fast-breaking dinner (iftar) last year. A second similar dinner will be held on Jan. 7 in Istanbul. The AKP couldn’t do any other openings toward Alevis, but Alevis have already opened up to non-Muslims and invited leaders of the non-Muslim congregations to the dinner. The AKP Istanbul Deputy Reha Çamuroğlu justifies the reason as "An emphasis on multi-religion Istanbul." That’s fine but will the AKP make a step forward to Alevis? We’ll hear it from Erdoğan who will participate in the dinner. If there comes out no solid AKP step, the opening will unavoidably be read as a "pie in the sky."

THIRD ARTICLE

Genç told not to talk

Tunceli Independent Deputy Kamer Genç is, without doubt, the most colorful person in Parliament. Though he was even beaten for his fierce criticisms of the AKP, Genç didn’t step down from the lectern even once in 2008. The AKP deputies tried everything to stop him. Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan was presiding over the meeting. Genç insisted on having the floor. But Toptan didn’t give him a chance. Yet Genç continued with objections. Toptan finally called a vote. The result was "rejection." So, Genç became the first deputy who was kept silent by parliamentary voting.