The local elections held in Turkey were discussed on Ada TV’s *Noon Agency* program:
- Journalist Mehmet Altan: Even if there were a thousand elections, CHP could not win even one. - CHP Deputy Chair Öymen: AKP’s collapse has begun. - Journalist Cenk Mutluyakalı: AKP should steer clear of an aggressive stance. - Journalist Mete Tümerkan: Every political party should learn a lesson from this election.
Recep USUN
CHP Deputy Chair Onur Öymen, journalist Mehmet Altan, journalist Mete Tümerkan, and journalist Cenk Mutluyakalı joined Cem Kar’s *Noon Agency* program on Ada TV by phone, answered Kar’s questions, and assessed the local elections. While CHP Deputy Chair Öymen described the election results as “the beginning of the collapse” for AKP, journalist Altan claimed that CHP, as it currently stands, would always lose to AKP.
WE HAVE INITIATED LEGAL PROCEEDINGS CHP Deputy Chair Öymen said they had begun reviewing the election results and had initiated legal proceedings. Claiming that AKP’s collapse had also begun with these results, Öymen said, “There are districts in Istanbul where we were ahead but lost by 169 votes at the last moment. In Bursa, we established that one person had voted twice. We will compare the documents we have collected with the documents held by the Supreme Election Council. We have initiated legal proceedings concerning the election.”
CHANGE IS NEEDED Journalist Mehmet Altan, who joined the phone-in to assess the election results, said that the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Democratic Society Party (DTP) had gained ground in these elections because AKP had failed to foster democracy within the party, there were disgruntled members within the party, candidates had been poorly chosen, and of the consequences of its policy in the southeast. Altan said that, despite everything, CHP had not achieved the desired rise, and noted that there were expectations about whether AKP could become a party of change. Altan said that AKP’s increasingly Ankara-centric outlook and its attempt to respond to demands for change with conventional formulas rather than practical solutions had caused it to go into decline.
THEY SHOULD CRITICIZE THEIR OWN PERFORMANCE In response to Öymen’s description of the election results as “the beginning of the collapse” for AKP, Altan said that, at the point they described as the beginning of the collapse, CHP was 16 points behind AKP. “I don’t think it is meaningful to comment on the government’s position instead of assessing their own,” he said.
A POLICY OF TENSION Altan also addressed CHP’s statements on election night, when results were close, that it had won Istanbul and Ankara and that there were problems with the database. He said CHP’s statements that night had made him suspicious, but after doing some research, he realized that CHP was not telling the truth and was creating tension. “CHP is hoping to benefit from a policy of tension. I disapprove of and condemn this. They misled me too by saying they had won the election. The database crash is a disgrace for Turkey,” he said. Responding to a question about the legal proceedings initiated by CHP, Altan said that CHP could change nothing, adding, “As it stands, CHP could run in a thousand elections and lose all thousand to AKP.”
POLITICS IS MOVING TOWARD IDENTITY-BASED DIVISIONS Journalist Mete Tümerkan said the results of the local elections in Turkey showed that politics was moving toward an identity-based approach, and emphasized that questions of this kind could be on Turkey’s agenda in the coming days. Tümerkan said AKP had lost votes because of the economic crisis, while CHP had increased its vote by pursuing a different election strategy than in the previous elections. Saying that every political party should learn a lesson from this election, Tümerkan noted that he found Erdoğan’s election-night speech very meaningful.
SHOULD ABANDON ITS AGGRESSIVE STANCE Journalist Cenk Mutluyakalı said that the local election results in Turkey had created a situation in which AKP needed to take the opposition seriously. He said that, after this result, AKP should become more conciliatory and move away from its aggressive stance, adding that Erdoğan’s election-night speech reflected this approach.