Turkish president’s daughter Sümeyye Erdoğan may run for office

Nuray Babacan - ANKARA

AA Photo

While word is going around that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s daughter, Sümeyye Erdoğan, will run for office in the upcoming general elections in June, the names of several bureaucrats may also be pronounced.

According to the election calendar, bureaucrats have to resign by Feb. 10 at the latest if they want to run in the upcoming general elections, which has accelerated the preparation of lists in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). This week, Finance Ministry Undersecretary Naci Ağbal and Turkish Airlines Head of the Executive Committee Hamdi Topçu are expected to resign so they can run in the elections. 

Sümeyye Erdoğan, the president’s daughter, appears likely to become a deputy as well, but the family has not reportedly decided or announced its decision yet. The number of veiled female deputies in the party will also increase after these elections. Half of the planned 60 female deputies will be veiled. 

Eyes have also turned to advisors in the offices of the president and the prime minister. The first resignation came from Erdoğan’s text writer Aydın Ünal. Chief Advisor Yiğit Bulut’s entry into politics is debatable because there is a serious resistance to Bulut’s candidacy within the party. 

The party will not have candidates coming from mayoral positions or provincial organization chairs except for Kayseri Mayor Mehmet Özhaseki. It has been rumored that he was promised candidacy in the first general elections and a cabinet post. 

National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan’s entry into politics will also be decided this week. Two criteria are expected to affect Fidan’s situation, a person who has good relations with both the president and the prime minister. Having a name at the head of the MİT who is able to convince Erdoğan is one of them, while Fidan is the assurance that the struggle against the so-called “parallel state” will continue. The ruling party is expected to nominate 15 bureaucrats, including some governors.  

The former four cabinet ministers who were involved in the corruption scandal will not be nominated. Egemen Bağış cannot run for office because of the party’s internal ban on “three-terms.” Zafer Çağlayan had already declared he would leave politics. The other two, knowing the stance of the party, will not apply.