Dynastic Mayor Goes to Jail; Municipal Nepotism Exposed in Horasan

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 6 September 2020)

nepotism: it's academic too click here for a

recent TNT report about this plague in

academia.

                 Family legacy: "He was a good provider."

The day before yesterday, Abdulkadir Aydın, the AKP (ruling party) 

mayor of Horasan district in Erzurum province, was put in jail in 

Ankara for 9 years after an appeals court confirmed his conviction in 

a 7-year-old commercial suit.

In the wake of Aydın's incarceration, the extent of the nepotism in

Horasan was exposed by CHP parliamentarian and journalist Bariş

Yarkadaş, who explained the details to Sözcü: 

"A patriotic municipal employee in Horasan sent me information 

about the extensive nepotism in the district.  I researched the matter

and I am certain that the information I received is true.  Everyone in

Horasan knew about the nepotism but because the Aydın family was

so powerful no one dared say anything about it."

"The Horasan municipality has no official website so, consequently,

there is no way to obtain official records about who's running things.

It's clear that no website was established so that there wouldn't be 

any discussion about the family infrastructure of the municipality."

"It is claimed that the municipality subsidized the retirement 

insurance premiums of some of Aydın's relatives who didn't have 

enough retirement insurance payments to get a pension."

"This is essentially a snapshot of the system the AKP has brought

to Turkey.  When there's an AKP mayor, the "AKP" really stands 

for "Aileyi Kalkındırma Partisi" (Family Development Party)."

Abdulkadir Aydın was elected as the mayor of Horasan in the 2014

election as the Saadet (Happiness/Prosperity) Party candidate.  Prior

to the 2019 election, he switched to the AKP.

Here is the list of Aydın's relatives in municipal posts: 

Brother Sadri Aydın is the personnel director;

Nephew Hayrettin Aydın is the chief of staff;

Cousin Fahrettin Aydın is the cemetery director;

Other municipal employees include Fahrettin Aydın's son Faruk Aydın,

Özgür Aydın, Tanju Aydın, Yakup Aydın, Rifat Aydın, Cihan Aydın,

İlhan Aydın, Kenan Aydın, Emrah Aydın, Burhan Aydın, Fahri Aydın,

Dağıstan Aydın, Abdurrahim Aydın, Sedat Aydın, İsmet Aydın, Engin

Aydın and Ünal Aydın. (!)

  

            Horasan district is in the darker red to the right.