Governors serving only the AKP

Governors serving only the AKP

The governor of Tunceli, an eastern province, distributed white goods to voters using the means of his office to support the election propaganda of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). 

Another eastern governor, in Elazığ, said, “I want a prime minister who would say ‘one minute.’” 

The governor of the Thracian province of Kırklareli said, “It was unfortunate that the Democrat Party [DP] did not close the Republican People’s Party [CHP] and not send its leader [İsmet] İnönü to that tranquil place in history.”

The governor of Bitlis, in eastern Anatolia, was caught asking for votes for the AKP. 

The governor of Kayseri in central Anatolia cut the cake during a national holiday, Victory Day on Aug. 30, while the AKP march was playing.

There was a governor in Aydın, an Aegean province, who was the leader of partisans. He took down the posters of the opposition parties from the party buildings in a midnight operation. He adopted a political stance against the mayor of the city who was from the CHP. He scolded the villagers who were complaining about the damage to irrigation channels saying, “Then, use your vote in the right direction at the elections.” He attended the Aug. 30 celebrations with AKP deputies and did not shake the hands of CHP and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputies. Later, when he was appointed to the Mediterranean province of Adana, he arrested a 15-year-old boy for making a nationalist hand sign. He said he considered the prime minister’s words about coed student apartments as an instruction and would act accordingly; he called the people “pimps;” what else could he have done? 

The governor of Istanbul, while police brutality was taking lives, said continuously that the police exerted proportional force; he juked people with his tweets; while people feared for their lives and those of their loved ones, he praised a linden tree. 

The governor of Bolu, an inner west Black Sea province, said “We bought a very modest vehicle.” What he called a modest vehicle was an Audi worth 214,000 Turkish Liras. 

The governor of Erzurum, an eastern province, threatened the people of Erzurum during a meeting about 100 new hydroelectric power plants (HES) for Black Sea creeks, saying if they did not help those who arrived in the region to build the HES, they “would get hurt.”  

The governor of Ordu, on inner Black Sea region, did not allow Kurdish seasonal workers to enter the city for “security” reasons.

The governor of Giresun on the Black Sea issued a circular that girls should not wear shorter than knee-high skirts, sleeveless blouses and tank tops at graduation ceremonies. 

The governor of Afyon, a central Anatolian province, banned the consumption and sale of alcohol openly in the city. 

Central Anatolian city Eskişehir’s governor said, “[Gezi Park protestor] Ali İsmail Korkmaz was killed by his friends, not the police.”

The governor of Edirne, a city next to the Bulgarian border, was angry at Israel’s raid on the al-Aqsa Mosque and said he would make the synagogue recently restored in the city into a museum, thus banning religious ceremonies. 

The governor of Yalova, near Istanbul, insulted a teacher because of his hair and clothes and sent him out of the class. The same teacher had a heart attack and died during a protest march. 

And, the very last, the eastern province of Şanlıurfa governor had journalists Deniz Yücel, Özlem Topçu, Pınar Öğünç and Hasan Akbaş detained because he did not like their questions. 

These governors, in the provinces they were appointed, acted like the provincial head of the AKP organization, as a vice squad, as a revolutionary guard; they used the power of the state to intimidate and erode people. 

A restoration is absolutely necessary before any kind of coalition. We have 81 of these over-authorized governors. Repair will take time.

Note: Some of the governors mentioned have been relocated. What I am trying to emphasize here is the mentality of these governors.