Early elections at the beginning of November

I heard a very “simple and plain” voice from Ankara, saying: “There will not be a coalition. There is an election at the beginning of November.” We know that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu are scheduled to meet Monday evening.

We know that all of Turkey has been glued to this meeting. We know that the forming of a coalition is also one of the possibilities. Television channels, cameras, expert analyses; they will all talk, discuss, interpret and comment… 

We will go through all of these… Maybe the talks will continue… 

But this simple voice from Ankara says: “There are certain matters that make a coalition impossible. Another election will be tried, once more. If no one party wins a majority then there will be a coalition.”

In other words, “There is an election in November.” 

There are other scenarios, such as the elections being postponed until May. The “simple voice” from Ankara is a person who is very much within the lobbies. But you would not see him on television screens. For this reason, his prediction sounds more logical to me. He is not a “conspiracy dealer.” 

Moreover, there is an important issue within the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). If there is an election in November, then what will happen to the party’s internal regulation banning candidates from running for office after running consecutively for three terms?   

Because of this three-term ban, many outstanding names in AK Party were left outside the parliament during the June 7 elections. 

If the June 7 elections will be considered a “term” for them, then they can run for office in the elections in November. But then, some deputies who were elected on June 7 will not be nominated because they have had three terms. I think, because of this reason, the AK Party will lift its three-term ban for the November elections. Thus, several significant and experienced names such as Ali Babacan, Binali Yıldırım, Bülent Arınç, Ömer Çelik and Hüseyin Çelik will be able to run for office in November elections. This situation may create an important evaluation and topic of debate in the AK Party. 

On the other hand, will CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu find it difficult to explain the situation to his party’s grassroots? I don’t think so. The CHP will also rapidly nominate new names and will go through the primaries, or it will continue with same candidates. 

All of these will prompt debates in party organizations. 

No terror, only live music in Thessaloniki  

I took my son to a tennis tournament near Thessaloniki on the weekend. Taking this opportunity, I wandered through the entire town. It is like İzmir’s Kordon shore, very vivid and joyful. The cafes, taverns and bars are full. There are no suicide bombing or terror alerts; there is only live music. 

We are the people of the same sea but different shores; we are from the Aegean, from the Mediterranean.

When I saw this much liveliness in Thessaloniki, I asked myself, “What kind of a bankruptcy is this?”   

There is an explanation about the panic stemming from the economic situation in Greece. I spent a lot of time in Germany at one point, in several cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Munich... Now in Thessaloniki, I have understood once more that Germany is making a mistake. 

As Europe’s most influential power, the money-case, the motor of the economy, it expects Athens, Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon to be Dusseldorf. Or Frankfurt. 

Do you know what Dusseldorf is like? The entire city is actually a factory.  

People live their lives according to the rhythm of the factory. It is mechanic. However, Barcelona is not. Neither is Thessaloniki – or Naples, or Sicily, or Portugal, as these cities are Mediterranean. 

None of these cities are like a factory and none of their residents are part of a mechanism. 

What Germany does not understand is this: It is different to be a Mediterranean person. A Frankfurt cannot be built in the Mediterranean. You cannot make Barcelona or Thessaloniki into a Düsseldorf. 

In Munich it is only conventional to have fun during the beer festival in November. Even festivals there are organized in a military order. 

So, you should not take it very seriously when they say Greece, Spain and Portugal are collapsing. In short, the Mediterranean lives differently than Germany. Because Germany cannot understand this, it is having difficulty managing the Mediterranean shores of Europe. 

Of course, there is a problem. There are debts; the stock exchange is collapsing. But Thessaloniki has told me: The bourse may collapse but the music goes on in the Mediterranean. Unemployment is a job; vagabondism is a mobile position in the Mediterranean. Their dance, music and laughter are permanent. Their ship would not sink in the strongest storm. They are, before anything else, sailors, revolutionaries and explorers…