A new and fresh opposition in Turkey

Last weekend the old Motherland Party (ANAVATAN [also known as ANAP]), the child of the late Turgut Özal, held an extraordinary general assembly and elected Erkan Mumcu their chairman.

Once the primary governing party of Turkey under the leadership of Özal, ANAVATAN lost prestige during the Mesut Yılmaz era and only managed to win 5 percent of the vote in the last elections.

Mumcu, who started his political career in ANAVATAN, ran in the Nov. 3 2002 elections with the new Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and was first appointed minister of education and then minister of culture by the AKP government.

A typical liberal, it was soon understood that he was not getting along with Erdoğan, and there was speculation that he had a burning desire to become a leader himself. It was obvious from the very start that he would challenge Erdoğan just as he had challenged Yılmaz, the ailing chairman of ANAVATAN, before he left the party.

He served as a minister in the AKP government for two-and-a-half years, and the disagreements between he and Erdoğan finally reached a climax when Erdoğan invited him to resign.

Now he is back home at ANAVATAN and finally got what he has wanted since the very beginning of his career as a politician: leadership of a party.

I have been observing Mumcu since the beginning of his political journey.

I also attended the ANAVATAN congress last week and listened to his close to one-hour speech.

First of all, I have to share with you my impression about the congress.

At a time when nearly everybody, including myself, thought that ANAVATAN had passed away following the last elections, the overwhelming crowd that attended the congress and their great enthusiasm proved us wrong.

Mumcu has already attracted nine people from the governing and omnipotent AKP to ANAVATAN, which was on the verge of bankruptcy before the congress last weekend.

Mumcu made it very clear during his speech that he would ignite a very harsh and fiery opposition.

He challenged Erdoğan with very strong words.

He openly said that the prime minister is ignorant, not able to follow what is going on in the world, and that he doesn't have sufficient stature to run a country.

He openly uttered some “negative adjectives” about Erdoğan's intellectual capacity that had already been mentioned behind closed doors.

Mumcu also denounced the AKP for offering bribes to deputies who joined the party from the CHP.

I should back Mumcu on this point since the officials who followed the so-called “AK energy crisis,” the pre-tailored tenders at the Minister of Energy, also are challenging the structure of some tenders that were won by the firms of these deputies.

I believe that a checks-and-balances mechanism is the core of a democratic system.

This function is served by the opposition in Parliament. But the CHP opposition has been rather weak so far, and each passing day Erdoğan gets used to the typical attitude that he has no equal and that he is the “sole savior of Turkey.”

I hope Mumcu, with a well-thought-out vision, challenges Erdoğan, an effort that serves both the AKP, in shaping itself up, and ANAVATAN in once again becoming an alternative.