Authors of pirate poster scam against main opposition’s Ankara candidate detained

ANKARA

In one of the posters, Mansur Yavaş was featuring with CHP Tunceli lawmaker Hüseyin Aygün. 'We will govern together. Your votes to the CHP,' the poster read. HÜRRİYET photo

Two people suspected of launching an ironic poster scam targeting main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Ankara mayoral candidate Mansur Yavaş were detained early March 18.

In recent days, posters mocking the conservative background of Yavaş – a former member of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) – by linking him with far-left personalities and groups had appeared across the Turkish capital.

Many CHP voters had suspected a scam while the party organization had dismissed that the posters were hung with their knowledge.

Members of the CHP’s youth branch found four people as they were hanging posters in Ankara’s Keçiören district. Two of them were detained while the other two escaped before police came to the scene.

Police also found official posters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the vehicle driven by the suspects, suggesting that they were linked with the team of Ankara’s current mayor, Melih Gökçek, who is running for a record fifth term.

‘Mansur Yavaş for revolution’

In one of the posters, Yavaş was featuring with CHP Tunceli (Dersim) lawmaker Hüseyin Aygün, a Zaza and Alevi known for his closeness to leftist groups. “We will govern together. Your votes to the CHP,” the poster read. 

As subtle as always, Gökçek memorably asked Akgün if “he was gay” on Twitter last July. “We’re just wondering. They’re also wondering in Tunceli,” he had tweeted.

“Those who have set their heart on the revolution, let’s unite under Yavaş,” read another poster, allegedly prepared by revolutionary groups.

“It is now clear that this is a plot orchestrated by Melih Gökçek,” a spokesman of the NGO Temiz Siyaset Platformu (Clean Politics Platform) said after the suspects were detained.

The CHP is squaring off against Gökçek with Yavaş, the vocal former mayor of the touristic town of Beypazarı, who is expected to garner votes from the right, including within the AKP.

Gökçek had previously said the fifth term would be his last and that he was planning to re-emerge as a journalist after a quarter of a century at the helm of Turkey’s capital.