Ruling party wants to be called as wishes
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Hurriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Haziran 06, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - The divisive issue of the way the ruling Justice and Development Party is referred to, as the AKP or AK Party, has once again gripped the nation.
While most political parties in Turkey are abbreviated by using the first letters of the way they are spelled in Turkish, such as the Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyetçi Halk Partisi) as CHP, or the Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi) as MHP, the ruling party, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, has asked to be referred to as the AK Party.
Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review Editor-in-Chief David Judson, when asked about the paper’s policy on the matter, said: "This is just the way we abbreviate the names of political parties. It’s not something done to annoy the ruling party."
Meanings of color
Ak, which means white in Turkish, also implies the party is pure, honest and untainted, which the AKP is trying to utilize, while another inference of which is that the other parties aren’t.
Ever since the party was established in 2001, it has called on the public to make it a special case and violate the norm of abbreviating political parties. While the conservative media acceded to the ruling party’s request, the rest of the mainstream media decided to do things the way they were always done, incurring the party’s wrath from time to time.
In his speech to his parliamentary deputies Tuesday, AKP leader and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has a history of criticizing the media, accused those who referred to his party as AKP of "rudeness" and "ignoring political ethics." "AK means purity, justice and development. Those who do not use it are defaming the party," he told his deputies, initiating another round of discussions about the matter.
Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review Editor-in-Chief David Judson, when asked about the paper’s policy on the matter, said: "This is just the way we abbreviate the names of political parties. It’s not something done to annoy the ruling party."
Meanings of color
Ak, which means white in Turkish, also implies the party is pure, honest and untainted, which the AKP is trying to utilize, while another inference of which is that the other parties aren’t.
Ever since the party was established in 2001, it has called on the public to make it a special case and violate the norm of abbreviating political parties. While the conservative media acceded to the ruling party’s request, the rest of the mainstream media decided to do things the way they were always done, incurring the party’s wrath from time to time.
In his speech to his parliamentary deputies Tuesday, AKP leader and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has a history of criticizing the media, accused those who referred to his party as AKP of "rudeness" and "ignoring political ethics." "AK means purity, justice and development. Those who do not use it are defaming the party," he told his deputies, initiating another round of discussions about the matter.