Türel named AKP’s Antalya candidate

ANTALYA

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan named the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Deputy Chairman Menderes Türel as the Antalya candidate for the local elections on March 30, 2014.

The prime minister described Türel as “My deputy chairman, who is not unfamiliar to Antalya, who knows the Antalya Municipality well, who I believe and trust.”

Türel held the Antalya mayoral post between 2004 and 2009, but he lost to Mustafa Akaydın in the 2009 elections in what was dubbed as a major upset. The Antalya result was arguably the most important takeover from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) over the ruling AKP in one of Turkey’s major cities in the 2009 elections. The CHP is yet to announce its Antalya candidate and it is still unclear whether Akaydın, who claimed 40 percent of the votes in 2009, will run in the elections or not.