Yozgat A Lot Of Nerve
Issue #255
A big geçmiş olsun to everyone shaken by Wednesday’s earthquake. And a shout out to those who carried on through the aftershocks with their backgammon, haircuts and cat surgeries.
Announcement: We’ll host a live webcast with analysts Riccardo Gasco and Samuele Abrami to examine growing Italy-Turkey defense cooperation and Erdoğan’s trip to Rome next week.
Join us at this link on Wednesday, April 30, at 0800 EST / 1200 UTC / 1500 TRT.
In this week’s recap:
CHP protests set the agenda
Large quake hits İstanbul
MHP head stays the course?
DEM Party meets justice minister
Domestic and diplomatic wraps
Bonfire gets Diyarbakır stoned
Also from us this week:
Hilal Tok on Turkey’s youth employment program, which critics say exploits children.
For detailed parliamentary news, subscribe to our Turkish-language Meclis recap.
From Yozgat to İstanbul and Ankara, CHP-led demonstrations are taking over the news cycle in Turkey.
And while Erdoğan keeps delivering speeches, dismissing protesters as vandals and highlighting alleged corruption in opposition municipalities, Soli Özel noted the president is not currently setting the pace or subject matter of the national agenda.
“For the first time in a long time … Erdoğan is unable to control and manipulate the narrative. The story is too obvious for everyone to see and very difficult if not impossible to spin,” Özel wrote in his latest analysis.
One month after İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s arrest, opposition-led protests appear to be shifting the long-held parameters of public discourse and public assembly.
Whether the momentum can be sustained remains to be seen, but if so, Saturday’s CHP-led protests in Yozgat and İstanbul may be cited as the tipping point for a broader popular movement in Turkey.
Known as the butt of Anatolia jokes and the site of a great Roman bath, the conservative Yozgat province consistently delivered electoral victories for the AKP until last year, when Yeniden Refah took over in what was read as disenchantment with the ruling party.
Then came Saturday’s tractor convoy. CHP chair Özgür Özel called a demonstration in Yozgat after local farmers were fined earlier this month for protesting İmamoğlu’s detention. The move seemed to draw a larger crowd than expected, prompting analyses of changing voter sentiments – possibly best expressed by Abdullah Ceylan, a farmer who spoke Saturday.
"The state cannot be governed with radishes and turnips, it can be governed with justice and law,” Ceylan said, instantly becoming a symbol of popular discontent with his reference to the opposition’s ‘turp’ metaphor.
The words were echoed and displayed on the evening news as a CHP-led Gaza demonstration was blocked by riot police in İstanbul. The split screen of events sent the message home for Turkish citizens across generations.
“What Erdoğan is doing is unjust. His power is coming to an end. It’s just a matter of time,” Soner, a 55-year old Ankara resident, told Turkey recap at Wednesday’s protest in the capital.
Originally from Yozgat, Soner wore a Fenerbahçe jersey with his hometown’s “66” license plate number on it. He said his relatives in Yozgat voted for the AKP for decades but opted for Yeniden Refah last year due to financial difficulties.
“They are farmers. They work hard all year and still can’t make ends meet,” Soner said. “I’ve been talking to them, and I think they might support CHP in the next election just because they want someone to fix this economy.”
Soner was one of thousands of protesters who marched with Özel to Anıtkabir Wednesday. The crowd spanned all age groups and all variations of Kemalists, left to right.
Buse and Sanem, two 20-year-old university students, were among the protesters and chanted while making ultranationalist ‘grey wolf’ hand gestures. When asked which party they would support in the next election, Buse responded:
“We want a change in government, so we will support anyone who can defeat the AKP,” she said.
Both said they voted for CHP in the last presidential elections for the same reason, and defined themselves as ‘Atatürkçü’ in ideology.
“We could have problems at our school for speaking to you, and we don’t want this repressive environment to continue in our country,” Sanem told Turkey recap.
When asked if they believed change was possible, they nodded in unison with a confident “Yes.”
Next: The CHP will host a demonstration in the southern province of Mersin Saturday.
Large quake hits İstanbul, highlights lack of preparedness – by Wouter Massink
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