Turgut Altınok named AKP's mayoral candidate for Ankara

ANKARA

Turgut Altınok, the current mayor of Ankara’s Keçiören district, has been officially unveiled as the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) metropolitan mayoral candidate for the capital.

The announcement came today as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan revealed the AKP's candidates for 48 cities, including 17 metropolitan areas.

At 62 years old, Altınok has a political history that includes being elected as the mayor of Keçiören from both the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Virtue Party.

Meanwhile, Hamza Dağ has been declared the AKP's candidate for the western İzmir city. The 44-year-old, who currently serves as the party's deputy chairman in charge of publicity and media, has been a member of the AKP's central decision-making and executive board since 2014.

"Our goal is to win back the municipalities that are in the hands of the AKP and the People's Alliance with an overwhelming majority and to introduce real municipalism to the municipalities in the hands of the opposition," Erdoğan said during the announcement event in Ankara.

The AKP has now revealed its candidates in all provinces, with the exception of seven, where it will extend support to its ruling alliance partner MHP. The president also revealed that starting Jan. 20, district candidates would be announced, beginning with Istanbul.

"We have never been among those who hide behind various symbols to protect their seats even though they have never given anything to the cities," Erdoğan said. "Elections are won in the field before the ballot box, and the way to win in the field is to win the election in the hearts."

Erdoğan said his party will release its election manifesto on Jan. 30.

In addition, four of the announced metropolitan candidates are incumbent mayors. Fatma Şahin in Gaziantep, Memduh Büyükkılıç in Kayseri, Uğur İbrahim Altay in Konya and Zeynel Abidin Beyazgül in Şanlıurfa have been affirmed as candidates for their respective cities.

Among other candidates for metropolitan cities are Fatih Mehmet Kocaispirli, mayor of Yüreğir district in Adana; Hakan Tütüncü, mayor of Kepez district in Antalya; Yusuf Alemdar, mayor of Serdivan district in Sakarya; and Ahmet Metin Genç, the mayor of Ortahisar district in Trabzon.

In Hatay and Kahramanmaraş, the party's provincial chairmen Mehmet Öntürk and Fırat Görgel have been announced as mayoral candidates.

In Diyarbakır, the AKP has fielded Mehmet Halis Bilden, the former head of the General Directorate of Agricultural Enterprises (TİGEM), as their mayoral candidate. Other candidates include Sami Er in Malatya, Abdullah Erin in Mardin, Cüneyt Yüksel in Tekirdağ and Abdulahat Arvas in Van.

Among other notable names in the lineup are current mayors Feyat Asya in Muş, Hilmi Bilgin in Sivas, Mehmet Yarka in Şırnak and Mehmet Çakın in Uşak. Additionally, AKP provincial chairman Hüseyin Ceylan Uluçay in Afyonkarahisar, Health Ministry provincial director Muhammed Emin Demirkol in Bolu, deputy mayor Ülkü Öcal in Iğdır and doctor Osman Arslan in Kırşehir are set to run in their respective cities.

The AKP has previously announced its support for MHP candidates in seven provinces – Manisa, Mersin, Bartın, Erzincan, Kars, Kırklareli and Osmaniye.