İzmir left seeks to hold on to its bastion
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Serdar Alyamaç
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 10, 2009 00:00
İZMİR - İzmir seems ready to uphold it’s standing as a leftist stronghold in local elections March 29, not necessarily because residents are happy with the leftist party in power, but for lack of a better option.
The Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has never hid its desire to win the municipal elections in İzmir, but the conservative values of the party precludes it from making strong inroads into the province. Instead, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, is seen as the likely winner, despite many reservations voiced by İzmir residents.
As the AKP makes winning in İzmir one of its main goals in the coming elections, the CHP, which has lost all the greater municipality posts apart from İzmir, is doing its utmost to ensure its reign there continues.
İzmir, with its secularist and democratic roots, will ignore the individual characteristics of the candidates and will focus on the policies and values of the parties. The İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and its 21 junior municipalities are likely to be shared out between the AKP and the CHP, with the other parties making minor showings in the elections. The Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP’s, candidate for the top post in the city, Müsavaf Dervişoğlu, may try to build on recent increases in support but is not expected to change the end result.
The defense of the stronghold is in the hands of the incumbent Aziz Kocaoğlu of the CHP. He was elected as one of the junior mayors, for the district of Bornova, in the 2004 local elections.
The death from a heart attack of popular Mayor Ahmet Piriştina only three months after he was elected with 47-percent support resulted in a CHP-dominated municipal assembly voting in Kocaoğlu as a replacement.
Despite his apparent inexperience in the first year, Kocaoğlu started to make a name for himself by initiating successful projects and overseeing new municipal services.
His apparent popularity has failed to prevent cool relations with the CHP headquarters in Ankara. When Kocaoğlu announced his intention to run for the job again three months ago, he had to wait weeks before approval came from headquarters.
The weak ties between Kocaoğlu and the party’s leadership is one of his major handicaps. But the issue the AKP is capitalizing on is not Kocaoğlu’s ties with the CHP, but the "arsenic issue" of last summer and the failure to complete the metro construction on time.
As the city was suffering from a lack of clean water last summer, Kocaoğlu announced the opening of some underwater wells to address the matter. Tests on the wells’ water showed the arsenic content was higher than allowed and Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek accused Kocaoğlu of making people drink tainted water. Kocaoğlu’s investment in water purification facilities lowered the arsenic levels in the water but he suffered a serious setback in support.
On metro construction, Kocaoğlu suffered from problems with contractors. The first contractor, Bayındır İnsaat and its parent company Bayındır Holding, were seized by the Turkish Deposits Insurance Fund, or TMSF. The second contractor, Bozoğlu, constantly postponed construction and complained of unstable ground. Kocaoğlu’s defense was to blame the government for failing to support his projects and his exchanges with the government resulted in more negative press.
There is still uncertainty over how much the arsenic and metro issues will impact Kocaoğlu’s election chances, but still the perception that the "AKP is trying to topple İzmir as a leftist stronghold" and the apparent difference in mentality between the AKP and İzmir gives him a significant advantage.
AKP’s candidate Aksoy
AKP’s mayoral candidate for İzmir is none other than Taha Aksoy, who ran against Piriştina and lost in 2004 but was later elected as one of the İzmir deputies in the 2007 general elections.
He is known in the province as a quiet and gentle person who lacks leadership qualities, but he has been growing more aggressive as the elections near. Aksoy has accused Kocaoğlu of complicity in the "arsenic" and "metro" matters and dismissed the mayor’s suggestion that the government was holding back its support of İzmir because it was a CHP stronghold. Aksoy does not match the normal AKP profile and is known for following a "modern" lifestyle and neither his wife nor his daughters wear headscarves. When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attacked some columnists, including daily Hürriyet’s Bekir Coşkun, calling them "men who sleep with their dogs," Akyol, who is also a dog owner, distributed dog food as part of his fight against a rumor that if he were elected he would ban people walking their dogs on the streets. Despite the evident growth in AKP support in recent years, most of İzmir’s movers and shakers are pro-liberal, democrats and from the leftist strata of society. According to a recent poll conducted by Habertürk news channel, Kocaoğlu will win the elections with 41 percent to Aksoy’s 23 percent.
As the AKP makes winning in İzmir one of its main goals in the coming elections, the CHP, which has lost all the greater municipality posts apart from İzmir, is doing its utmost to ensure its reign there continues.
İzmir, with its secularist and democratic roots, will ignore the individual characteristics of the candidates and will focus on the policies and values of the parties. The İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and its 21 junior municipalities are likely to be shared out between the AKP and the CHP, with the other parties making minor showings in the elections. The Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP’s, candidate for the top post in the city, Müsavaf Dervişoğlu, may try to build on recent increases in support but is not expected to change the end result.
The defense of the stronghold is in the hands of the incumbent Aziz Kocaoğlu of the CHP. He was elected as one of the junior mayors, for the district of Bornova, in the 2004 local elections.
The death from a heart attack of popular Mayor Ahmet Piriştina only three months after he was elected with 47-percent support resulted in a CHP-dominated municipal assembly voting in Kocaoğlu as a replacement.
Despite his apparent inexperience in the first year, Kocaoğlu started to make a name for himself by initiating successful projects and overseeing new municipal services.
His apparent popularity has failed to prevent cool relations with the CHP headquarters in Ankara. When Kocaoğlu announced his intention to run for the job again three months ago, he had to wait weeks before approval came from headquarters.
The weak ties between Kocaoğlu and the party’s leadership is one of his major handicaps. But the issue the AKP is capitalizing on is not Kocaoğlu’s ties with the CHP, but the "arsenic issue" of last summer and the failure to complete the metro construction on time.
As the city was suffering from a lack of clean water last summer, Kocaoğlu announced the opening of some underwater wells to address the matter. Tests on the wells’ water showed the arsenic content was higher than allowed and Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek accused Kocaoğlu of making people drink tainted water. Kocaoğlu’s investment in water purification facilities lowered the arsenic levels in the water but he suffered a serious setback in support.
On metro construction, Kocaoğlu suffered from problems with contractors. The first contractor, Bayındır İnsaat and its parent company Bayındır Holding, were seized by the Turkish Deposits Insurance Fund, or TMSF. The second contractor, Bozoğlu, constantly postponed construction and complained of unstable ground. Kocaoğlu’s defense was to blame the government for failing to support his projects and his exchanges with the government resulted in more negative press.
There is still uncertainty over how much the arsenic and metro issues will impact Kocaoğlu’s election chances, but still the perception that the "AKP is trying to topple İzmir as a leftist stronghold" and the apparent difference in mentality between the AKP and İzmir gives him a significant advantage.
AKP’s candidate Aksoy
AKP’s mayoral candidate for İzmir is none other than Taha Aksoy, who ran against Piriştina and lost in 2004 but was later elected as one of the İzmir deputies in the 2007 general elections.
He is known in the province as a quiet and gentle person who lacks leadership qualities, but he has been growing more aggressive as the elections near. Aksoy has accused Kocaoğlu of complicity in the "arsenic" and "metro" matters and dismissed the mayor’s suggestion that the government was holding back its support of İzmir because it was a CHP stronghold. Aksoy does not match the normal AKP profile and is known for following a "modern" lifestyle and neither his wife nor his daughters wear headscarves. When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attacked some columnists, including daily Hürriyet’s Bekir Coşkun, calling them "men who sleep with their dogs," Akyol, who is also a dog owner, distributed dog food as part of his fight against a rumor that if he were elected he would ban people walking their dogs on the streets. Despite the evident growth in AKP support in recent years, most of İzmir’s movers and shakers are pro-liberal, democrats and from the leftist strata of society. According to a recent poll conducted by Habertürk news channel, Kocaoğlu will win the elections with 41 percent to Aksoy’s 23 percent.