In the News

In the News

On March 31st, 2019, the CHP party (the Republican People’s Party) won local elections in Ankara and Istanbul, ending the 25 year reign of the AKP (Prime Minister Erdogan’s ruling party). Mansur Yavaş is the CHP party’s candidate and the new mayor of Ankara. Yavaş has previously served in the city government for a sporadic two years. During that time, misconduct allegations arose from his time working as a lawyer. Ankara governmental officials attempted to resurface these allegations of fraud before the elections took place. These allegations represent the AKP’s fear of losing the capital city to Yavaş. The fraud and misconduct allegations, to Yavaş and many others from outside of the AKP, are means of attempting to maintain a stronghold over Ankara and Istanbul, arguably the two most important cities to Turkey.

Attempts to Maintain Control

The allegations posed against Mansur Yavaş are not the only attempts by the AKP to maintain power in the wake of the CHP’s win. On Sunday,  April 22nd, 2019, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, CHP leader, was attacked while attending the funeral of a soldier killed fighting Kurdish fighters in the southeast. Al Jazeera reports that “The attack came days after the main opposition CHP won Ankara and Istanbul from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s Justice and Development (AK) Party on March 31 local elections in a stinging blow to the ruling party.” While a political victory, the the CHP is facing violent backlash against their success as a result of the polarized political climate and resistance to change over.

Impact on Social Media

Kemal Kilicdaroglu is 70 years of age. He was attacked in the street and beaten brutally. Currently on social media, the hashtag #KilicdarogluYalnizDegildir, which means “Kilicdaroglu is not alone,” is trending. The immediacy of social media is palpable as this attack went viral via cell phone video immediately after it happened. As Turkey has a complex relationship with Twitter, and often censors much content, if not the whole website, it will be exremely interesting to follow how the Turkish government, with the AKP party currently ruiling, responds to this virality. Stay tuned.