Polls results sweep away AKP-style moustaches from bureaucracy
ISTANBUL
The "idealist" (ülkücü) style moustache (L) is strongly associated with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The "almond" (badem) style moustache (C) is a mainstream Islamist moustache in Turkey, while more hard-line Islamists tend to opt for a beard. Moustaches in both of the latter styles are generally trimmed short, in line with the advice of the Prophet Muhammad.
Turkey’s bureaucrats have never been known as paragons of fashion and style, but the army of (mostly) men that constitute the country’s civil service are loudly sporting Summer 2015’s hottest new look: almond moustache-free facial hair.The “in” look for the past 13 years has been swept away in time for summer as civil servants race to update their look in line with the political changes wrought by the June 7 elections, according to sources with their ear to fashion ground in the bureaucracy. Duly, with a coalition government seemingly on its way, senior administrative officials are bidding farewell to their almond moustaches of the type sported by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other Justice and Development Party (AKP) bigwigs in favor of normal, fuller moustaches, or far-right nationalist looks, in which the points of the moustaches go down to symbolize the three crescents – together with the eyebrows – of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
New stylings in the corridors of the bureaucracy also include changes in the form of address, according to daily Habertürk. Duly, gone is the term “Üstat” (meaning “master,” in honor of the poster child of almond moustaches and the resident of a modest, 1,150-room abode in Ankara) and in is the retro “arkadaş” (friend).
And as if civil servants have begun hedging their bets, members of opposition parties have expressed their delight that officials have begun deigning to return phone calls in the wake of the elections, having previously found it difficult to contact senior-level administrators during the one-party rule under the AKP.