Along the Black Sea, a government under attack fights back

P24 is on the campaign trail this month, taking a closer look at Turkey's local elections
 
On a recent morning in this rainswept Black Sea city, a convention hall of journalists and local politicos was treated to a thundering speech by Numan Kurtulmuş, a man sometimes tipped as the next prime minister.
 
“We're asked why we can't be softer, why we can't apologize”, said Kurtulmuş, vice-chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). “But just look at what happened to our boy”, he snapped, recalling the death of 22-year old Burakcan Karamanoğlu, pro-government demonstrator who had been reportedly shot by a leftist gang the night before. “This is the truth of what is happening in our country.”
 
With just days before bellwether local elections, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has hardened its no-apologies approach to national politics, denouncing a historic corruption scandal, country-wide street demonstrations, and a widening pool of political opponents.
 
In the rural Black Sea provinces of Ordu and Giresun, the AKP says it is expecting dividends from that strategy, predicting that will topple two charismatic opposition mayors. “This election is different, people know there is a historic threat to democracy in Turkey. Voters will act “accordingly” Kurtulmuş predicts
 
In Ordu, CHP unlikely to survive redistricting, conservative backlash 
From his smoke-filled election office on the outskirts of Ordu, 15-year mayor Seyit Torun agrees that the corruption scandal has likely strengthened his opponent's hand. “These days, Erdoğan seems to believe he's the last prophet,” said Torun, who was elected as an independent in 2009's local elections but will run this year under the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). “They're drumming up people by saying this isn't a local election, it's the end of time.”
 
To enforce that notion, Torun says the AKP has flown in an all-star roster of party members, including Ordu-native Kurtulmuş. “They bring everybody in to say one thing: the government is under attack, you have to defend it,” the 46-year old said. “Meanwhile I have no celebrities, I am just Mr Mayor.”
 
But Torun is no ordinary mayor. In 2009, Torun swept local elections by a convincing 52.7% to the AKP candidate's 39.4%. The mayor describes himself as a self-made local boy, and eagerly describes how he handshook and baby-kissed his way to the mayor's office.
 
“Really, there's one reason for my success,” he says. “I didn't inherit a broken city.” By Torun's account, Ankara long refused to spend development money in Ordu, which was known for its leftist politics before the 1980 coup. “We didn't have two pennies to rub together, so in a sense the city was spared,” he says. Ordu does indeed lack the raised highways and massive land reclamation projects that have robbed most Black Sea cities of their coast.
 
Coming elections will test Torun's grip on Ordu nonetheless. In 2001, Ordu was included among 13 provinces accorded the status of metropolitan municipality, meaning that entire province will vote on the city's mayor. Torun acknowledges that means winning over the highland villages above Ordu proper. “You would say, maybe the scandal would give us a chance to get momentum on a new electorate,” said Torun. “But you can only talk about services, win over individual people.”
 
The AKP's candidate for the district, former parliamentary deputy Enver Yılmaz, predicts a landslide for his party. The electorate has grown from 136,000 voters in 2009 to 400,000 registered voters this year, and the newly included electorate “has cast their ballots for center-right parties since Turkey's first real election in 1950,” said Enver. The former MP adds that the AKP holds five of the province's six parliamentary seats, which he says is a better reflection of the party's province wide influence. “With our party under attack, the distribution of votes will only slide in our favour.”
 
Torun remains defiant. “I've been in five elections and am going to win, and I'm not saying that as somebody who is trying convince you,” he said as he hopped aboard an election van one evening. Still, even Torun agrees that he's in for the fight of his life. “This is a local election. But it's true, some voters are convinced it's about something else.”
 
In Giresun, a baby-faced mayor defends his title 
In the neighbouring province of Giresun, baby-faced CHP mayor Kerim Aksu's candidacy is riding on a smile and a shoestring budget.
 
Unseating Giresun's AKP mayor in 2009 by a vote of 46.5 percent to 35.7 percent, 45-year old Aksu predicts he'll keep his seat this year, even as he complains that his campaign “doesn't get much financial help from the central party.”
 
Aksu possesses the candour and arrogant charm of a natural politician. “I want to know the needs of everybody in my city,” he declares. “Yesterday I strolled into the AKP's election office and asked, is there anything I can do for you here, can I help you?” In the fish house where we meet, patrons regularly approach Aksu, who rises, slaps backs and pinches youngsters' cheeks.
 
Aksu's easy confidence betrays humble origins: the mayor never attended university, and his father is an appliance salesman. “That's why I was glad when the Tunceli governor was reassigned here recently,” he says, recalling allegations that Tunceli governor Mustafa Yaman gave out refrigerators in trade for AKP votes during elections in 2009. “When I saw Yaman, I walked right across the room to the man and said: I'm glad to have you as company – I hear you're an appliance salesman too!”
 
In Giresun, the AKP's predictions of a conservative landslide seem mired in local politics. The party's candidate, Yılmaz Can, is a soft-spoken former a professor of medieval Islamic urban development, and gives the impression of having been press-ganged into his new role. “This is the first time I was thrown into politics,” he admits. “But even I was truly embarrassed at our party’s relationship with people here. More than anything, people here want to know: are you going to say hello to us when you walk by, are you going to look down your nose at us?”
 
Can says his chief asset is the corruption scandal, affirming his party's assertion that the election has become a referendum on the prime minister. In turn, he says the vote will similar to that seen in Giresun's local council election – an affair between parties, not candidates – in 2009, when AKP took 60.2 percent of the vote over the CHP's 22.6 percent.
 
Aksu agrees with Can that the corruption scandal has benefitted the ruling party benefit in Giresun. “It's best for us to avoid corruption,” he said. “People here embrace the Prime Minister.”
 
A local candidate reflects a party's national woes  
But if Aksu is insistent that his campaign will focus on local affairs, his own story seems to a case study of the national ills affecting the CHP.
 
Aksu argues that his party has been unable to capitalize on corruption accusations because of a stiff, hierarchical leadership.
 
He recalls a particularly bitter meeting with former party leader Deniz Baykal two years ago. “I waited for four hours just to see him. I told him that you can't direct party policy from high-level, extraordinary meetings. You need young leaders.” His relationship with some segments of the party's leadership has remained tepid ever since. “We have to rethink our strategy. Turkey is no longer just about urban attitudes,” he says.
 
Aksu says he receives a minimum amount of support from the party. But even his opponents hint he still might win. “Aksu hasn't done anything for Giresun in the last five years,” complains Giresun's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) candidate Orhan Erzurum.  But even he concedes that Aksu does have “a special touch.”

Tags: NULL