Erdogan participated in a Justice and Development Party (AKP) event in the Turkish capital of Ankara to announce the candidates who will run in the country’s local election set to take place in March.
Turgut Altinok, an ultranationalist figure and incumbent mayor of Ankara’s Kecioren district was handpicked by Erdogan to take on Ankara mayor Mansur Yavas.
Erdogan’s AKP historically lost the mayoralty of the Ankara and Istanbul provinces in the 2019 local elections to the opposition’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidates, after nearly 15 years of AKP dominance in Turkey’s biggest provinces.
Altinok became a prominent figure in Turkish politics when he was elected Kecioren mayor in 1994, winning the race as the candidate for the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). He became a member of the party at the age of 25 in the 1980s when it was called the Nationalist Task Party (MCP).
Altinok is also known for his feud in the 2000s with then Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek, an exponent of AKP. The two periodically exchanged accusations of the other running “Turkey’s most in debt municipality”.
Altinok was selected to go against another former MHP member and ultranationalist figure, Mansur Yavas, a shift from the more ideologically lenient Mehmet Ozhaseki who was Erdogan’s pick in 2019.
During Thursday’s event, Erdogan announced 47 other mayoral candidates alongside Altinok, including those set to run in Izmir and Diyarbakir. The candidate for Istanbul was not announced yet.
The Turkish President announced Hamza Dag, Erdogan’s deputy in AKP will be running for the “republican fortress” of Izmir, where CHP has been in power for over two decades.
In Diyarbakir (Amed) Erdogan chose a Kurdish candidate, Mehmet Halis Bilden, to run against the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).
DEM Party is set to officially announce its Diyarbakir candidate soon. Rudaw learned in December that the party plans to field veteran politician Leyla Zana to run for office in the Kurdish city.
CHP’s win in the 2019 local election was mainly attributed to the decision of the DEM Party, then running as Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), not to field candidates in the major cities of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Antalya. As a result of this strategy, the AKP lost all four provinces to the CHP, marking the first time in 15 years that the AKP lost in Ankara and Istanbul. However, the pro-Kurdish party reiterated on multiple occasions that in they will not adopt the same policy in the 2024 vote.
