By Ayla Albayrak and Joe Parkinson<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/turkey_Elections.jpg\" "\\"turkey_Elections\\"")
Turkey\u2019s general elections are usually volatile affairs, but with the governing AK Party streets ahead in opinion polls, this year\u2019s contest is being labeled the most predictable for over a decade. But predictable doesn\u2019t mean boring. Another staple of election season here is the emergence of scandalous revelations and accusations of foul play \u2014 and this time it\u2019s no different.<\/p>\n
Last week, the opposition Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, was shaken by the release of a video tape showing two party deputies apparently drunk and canoodling with two women. The tape\u2019s footage showed one of the deputies, Recai Yildirim, bragging about his daily visits to brothels and informing a female companion that he would be \u201cexcited\u201d to see her in a headscarf. The deputies resigned on Wednesday in a move analysts said could damage the party\u2019s chances with conservative voters, boosting the governing AK Party.<\/p>\n
Deniz Baykal, former leader of the opposition Republican People\u2019s Party, or CHP, pointed the finger at the ruling party, saying the video tape was \u201ca trap ahead of the elections.\u201d Mr. Baykal himself was ousted from party leadership by a similar scandal last year after a videotape showing him getting dressed after allegedly having sex in a hotel room with his former aide.<\/p>\n
The video scandal was followed this week by simultaneous police raids on two CHP party offices on allegations of corruption, according to state news Anadolu Agency. Thirty-four municipality workers were arrested in the offices, which were located in CHP strongholds in southwestern Turkey.<\/p>\n
A pro-secular heartland, Turkey\u2019s southwest is one of the country\u2019s few regions where the Islamic-leaning AK Party has struggled to win popular support.<\/p>\n
CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said the raids were politically motivated, questioning why corruption allegations were not investigated with similar vigor in the AK Party-led municipality of Kayseri in central Turkey.<\/p>\n
In a sign of growing tension, Minister of Transportation Binali Yildirim, who runs as an AK Party candidate for Izmir in southwestern Turkey, expressed concern about how the tape scandal and the raid would affect his party\u2019s image. The governing party has been faced mounting accusations that it is aggressively suppressing opponents in politics and the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have never undertaken illegitimate actions against our political rivals, and we never will,\u201d said Mr. Yildirim.<\/p>\n
Analysts said the emergence of scandals and parties trading barbs was \u201cstandard fare\u201d during a Turkish election season, but stressed that a growing number of voters were questioning whether recent revelations appeared to exclusively benefit the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no direct evidence linking the AK Party hierarchy to the allegations against the opposition, but if you\u2019re looking at who would benefit, there is a fairly causal link showing it serves AK Party interests. There is already an incredible amount of evidence disseminated by the opposition CHP about AK Party corruption in Kayseri, but it doesn\u2019t receive the same attention,\u201d said Atilla Yesilada, analyst at Global Source Partners, a research consultancy.<\/p>\n
via Sex, Fraud and Videotape – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Ayla Albayrak and Joe Parkinson Turkey\u2019s general elections are usually volatile affairs, but with the governing AK Party streets ahead in opinion polls, this year\u2019s contest is being labeled the most predictable for over a decade. But predictable doesn\u2019t mean boring. Another staple of election season here is the emergence of scandalous revelations and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":33228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[3926],"class_list":["post-33226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}