TNT 'Soft Landing' Edition: It Helps to Have Friends in High Places

turkce links to original Turkish article

(Sozcu Newspaper, 14 November 2019)



                     Sometimes when you lose, you win.

A number of AKP (ruling party) candidates who lost in the 31 March
2019 local elections have found 'soft landings' in the aftermath.  For
example, Fatih Metin, the failed AKP candidate for mayor of Bolu has
been appointed as a Deputy Minister in the Agriculture and Forestry
Ministry, while AKP'er Ozgul Ozkan Yavuz, who lost the election in
Kadikoy, Istanbul, has been made a Deputy Minister in the Ministry of
Culture and Tourism.

Ahmet Misbah Demircan, who was twice the AKP mayor of Beyoglu,
Istanbul, did not run on 31 March but has been appointed as a Deputy
Minister in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.  Mevlut Uysal, the
former Istanbul mayor who gave way to Binali Yildirim, the AKP's
mayoral candidate, ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Buyukcekmece
district in Istanbul.  He was subsequently appointed to the board of
directors of the state bank Halkbank in May.

Baris Saylak lost the mayoral election in Milas, Mugla province,
but has become the Director of Mugla's Agriculture and Forestry
Directorate, while Burhan Sakalli, who lost the election in Eskisehir,
has been made an advisor to Ordu Municipality Mayor Hilmi Guler.
Mustafa Ak, the former mayor of Kecioren district of Ankara, was
considered as a candidate for the Adapazari mayoral election but
ended up in the general secretariat of the Sakarya municipality.

Selami Ersen, the former mayor of Demirozu in Bayburt province,
did not run on 31 March and has been appointed to the Bayburt
provincial Agriculture and Forestry Directorate. Gokmen Gokcek
did not run in the election in Araban district of Gaziantep province
but has been made the Chief of the Strategy Development Office
at Gaziantep Islam Science and Technology University.


          Getting noticed by the right people helps, too.

Meanwhile, municipal traffic expert Murat Kazanasmaz, who
organized an "anti-Ekrem Imamoglu" meeting of Istanbul municipal
employees prior to the June run-off election, was fired in August
after Imamoglu took the mayor's office.  At the beginning of this
month, Kazanasmaz started working at Police Radio, an element
of the Police Organization Communications Office, which is under
the Ministry of the Interior, headed by Imamoglu's arch-nemesis
Suleyman Soylu.