Plug pulled on appliance assistance in Tunceli

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Free appliances handed out to poor families are a full load of controversy in the eastern province of Tunceli. The program started a week ago but was suspended yesterday after the local prosecutor’s office initiated an inquiry into potential violations of Election Law.

Opposition and many commentators criticized the timing of the appliance distribution, arguing that even though the governor’s office and local administrators were in charge, its occurrence just several weeks before local elections scheduled for March 29 made it obvious that it was an election ploy.

Local administrators and governors are civil servants appointed by the Interior Ministry and are in charge of security and administrative affairs in their regions while elected mayors are in charge of services.

The inquiry initiated by the prosecutor’s office came after the Supreme Election Board, or YSK, decision that the distribution of appliances was a violation of the Election Law. While the YSK announced its decision last week, the decision was communicated to the Tunceli prosecutor’s office yesterday.

The YSK, in response to a Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, complaint, decided such distribution of aid was a violation of both the Election Law and the Constitution. It said civil servants had to be neutral in such matters and aid to the poor weeks before elections could alter the voting patterns of the public.

The head of the YSK, Muammer Yıldırım, said Monday that local prosecutors would be in charge of deciding what activities violated the law in accordance with the YSK decision.

The local prosecutor’s office in Tunceli had already launched an inquiry when the Labor Party of Turkey, or EMEP, filed a complaint Monday.


When asked about the YSK, Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin said the election watchdog’s decision was binding on political parties and candidates, not on social assistance generally. "State aid to students and the poor cannot be suspended just because there is an election," Şahin said.

Deputy Prime Minister Hayati Yazıcı also defended the policy, arguing such aid came part and parcel with the principle of being a social state. "The YSK decision does not directly refer to Tunceli," he said. The deputy governor of Tunceli, Oğuz Alp Çağlar, yesterday dismissed claims the aid distribution was canceled because of the inquiry, adding that the only reason for the suspension was they had run out of certain appliances. "No judicial body has told us to stop the distribution," he told the Doğan news agency.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also defended the distribution of aid, dismissing concerns over its timing. Speaking at the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, parliamentary group meeting Monday, he said state aid to the poor and to students was usually suspended before elections, while huge amounts of money was spent on campaigns. "Efforts to address the lack of aid before the elections victimized the poor even more. We put a stop to that," he said.Erdoğan also compared criticism aimed at aid distribution in Tunceli to the much-criticized coal aid around the country and to scholarships given out by municipalities.

Appliances and furniture distributed by the governor’s office included washing machines, fridges and stoves and the total monetary value of the aid was estimated at 5 million Turkish Liras.

Tunceli’s Governor Mustafa Yaman defended his actions in a written statement, dismissing claims that what he did had anything to do with the elections. He listed aid given to the poor last year and said there was almost no change in the monetary value offered by the governor’s office. The plan to distribute appliances was part of a project initiated last year, he said.

Local reactions

The recipients of the aid in Tunceli gave mixed reactions, some happy with what they got while others complained they had asked for something else.

Housewife Sabriye İnanç told the Doğan news agency she was glad the state was helping her. "The state is already giving me food aid. I got a stove. I also asked for a bed and a fridge. I’ll be very happy if they come too," she said.

Muhtar Sakine Cevahir, an elected official in the Ali Baba neighborhood, said when this project first was promoted the locals thought it was an election ploy but had decided it was just helping out the poor. "We thought helping the poor is the state’s duty so this is normal. Actually, instead of distributing fridges, they could have built a factory to solve the unemployment problem," she told Doğan news agency. The rector of the Tunceli University, Professor Durmuş Boztuğ, also supported the distribution of aid, saying Tunceli was a poor province and needed help. Doğan news agency also reported certain discrepancies in the appliance distribution in Tunceli’s Cumhuriyet neighborhood where some families who already had a fridge or a stove received a second.

Some complained about well-to-do families receiving free appliances. One housewife said, "Our fridge and stove were old. I wanted to buy new ones but I got them for free. I will decide who I’ll vote for myself when I go to the polls."

One woman, Beser Kılınç, went to the truck distributing the appliances and told Doğan news agency that she wasn’t given anything because her husband drank alcohol. "We are very poor. The muhtar assigned the free goods to rich people and those with jobs. I will not vote in the elections."

Kıymet Çınar, from the Tokatlı neighborhood of Tunceli, said she received a washing machine, but pointed out a serious problem. "No one asked what I needed. I don’t have running water. I bring it with buckets from the well," she said. Her father-in-law Hıdır Çınar said he received a bed, a stove and a washing machine. "God bless them but these won’t solve our problems. We need money and jobs." Musa Taşkıran from the Kürekli complained of the same thing, "We need water and roads. We have no water but we have a washing machine," he said.

Economist Mustafa Sönmez, speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, said the distribution of white goods was a novel idea but was a continuation of an old tradition. The content and the timing of the aid has attracted all the attention, he said.

"I also think that it is against the understanding of a social democratic state. This aid should be put into the budget by a Parliament decision. According to objective criteria, the poor should receive aid," he said. "In kind, aid leads to arbitrariness. It is said the AKP government made its distributors of white goods unload their stock." Meanwhile, there are complaints by opposition parties in Siirt and Kırklareli about the distribution of scholarships and other aid that can be construed as election ploys.