Hürriyet, Turkey
Jan 31 2009
Worrying the AKP with gray, plodding details
ISTANBUL – The Republican People’s Party (CHP) threw a bombshell into
the run up to local municipal elections in March.
The CHP’s candidate is a little known bureaucrat who spent most of his
career working in various bureaucratic positions before becoming a
Member of Parliament – Kemal KılıçdaroÄ?l u.
His still photos don’t flatter him – grey hair, balding, rimless
glasses. He seems to be a typical bureaucrat. A mistake if you think
that. In person, he is well-spoken and well-educated, much more than
you might think when considering his early background as an accountant
and his rather subdued appearance.
Kılıç ;daroÄ?lu was born in Tunceli Dersim in
1948. The people of the area are primarily Alevi and his mother’s name
was Yemus. That could be Greek or Armenian but he gives one the
impression that he respects her so much that it doesn’t matter what
his mother’s origin is. "I love my mother so it doesn’t matter," he
says. He has seven brothers and sisters and says that he loves his
wife who is his first cousin.
The country around Tunceli Dersim is mountainous, stark and snow
covered in winter. A charming old Seljuk or Ottoman Turkish bridge
still exists among the hills, reminding one of the centuries of change
and conflict in the area. His original surname was Karabulut (Black
Cloud) but was later changed to
KılıçdaroÄ ;?lu (Son of the Swordsman),
apparently after his grandfather who was said to have been a brigand.
The history of Tunceli Dersim must be a fascinating one, so much so
that KılıçdaroÄ?l u is thinking about
writing a book about the area.
Schooled in various cities of Anatolia
Kılıçdar oÄ?lu’s father was a bureaucrat and
moved around so he completed his primary and middle school education
in various provinces and districts of Anatolia, graduating in 1971
from the Ankara Economic and Commercial Sciences Academy. He was a
very good student even being asked to provide the questions for his
class. Later he passed the test for accountants and in the same year
he entered the Finance Ministry. After officially becoming an
accountant, he also spent a year in France. In fact he speaks French
rather than English. But when asked why he always sports a tie, he
said that it was because of his father who wore a tie as a member of
the bureaucracy.
He is actually of the generation of ’68 that upset the world with
their protests and demands for change whether it was in Berkley
(California) or Paris or Istanbul. He joined in the leftist student
movement in Turkey but not in a leading role and it did little to
damage his career.
Tax man
He continued to work as an accountant in 1983 but was then made office
supervisor of the Income General Directorate the same year. And later
he became the assistant general director of the General
Directorate. In 1991 he joined the Bag-Kur General Directorate and in
1992 the SSK General Directorate. For a short period of time he was
the assistant undersecretary in the Labor and Social Security
Ministry. And in January 1999 by his own wish he retired from the SSK
General Directorate. In the meantime he was accused of being Kurdish
or Alevi because of being from Tunceli Dersim.
Kılıçdar oÄ?lu continued to engage in a
variety of activities from heading commissions to teaching as a
faculty member at Hacettepe University and serving on the Turkish Is
Bank Executive Committee. He became a member of Parliament from
Istanbul and still is there.
On the personal side, KılıçdaroÄ?l u admits
to enjoying the works of the late Ruhi Su, one of the great Turkish
singers who used his operatic training to interpret folk music for the
modern era. Su was also a leftist but he was prevented from ever
working in the state operas and was always under a cloud of suspicion
for his political beliefs. KılıçdaroÄ?l u
also told the Daily News that he likes films and especially those by
Yilmaz Guney, the leftist cinema producer who even spent time in
prison for his beliefs and Metin Eksan who is also a movie
producer. It seems he also likes to watch award-winning films but as
he is so busy all the time, he watches them on CDs, which of course
allows him to spend time with his wife and three children.
Kılıçd aroÄ?lu also likes the theater, art
and reading, but it’s not surprising to find that he might only spend
two days out of the year on a holiday and you can bet he’s not really
relaxing when he does. He has released information about his personal
holdings. As of 2007 these include two houses, three cooperative
shares and eight paintings valued at 2,733 Turkish liras.
He also doesn’t care very much about money preferring to live rather
simply as these numbers show. His personality is one of a very calm
person and as he says, "I try to be calm with whomever I speak because
getting nervous doesn’t bring anything to the conversation."
Kılı&#x C3;§daroÄ?lu as CHP’s candidate
The CHP has traditional ties with middle and upper-middle classes such
as white-collar workers, retired generals, government bureaucrats,
academics, college students, left-leaning intellectuals and labor
unions such as DISK and well-to-do entrepreneurs.
While the CHP is supposed to be a center-left political party, in the
last general election it was judged to be further to the right as a
nationalist party than before. The party leaders and many leftist
grass root parties were the cause of this shift; in other words, the
party leaders turned to a more nationalistic line and the grass roots
parties turned against this, attracting voters in the center left away
from voting for CHP candidates.
Emerges as number one in Istanbul survey
The CHP conducted a survey in Istanbul and it was
Kılıçdaro 4;?lu’s name that came up as number
one. CHP Istanbul Provincial Chairman Gürsel Tekin’s name was
second and Kemal DerviÅ? was third. A further name in the ring
was Ercan KarakaÅ?. Tekin however seems to have been diverted
with the suggestion that he run for one of the local municipalities
rather than for municipal mayor.
Kılıçdaro Ä?lu is not very charismatic but
he achieved a certain amount of fame with his proving that two AKP
parliamentarians were engaged in illegal activities. This led to their
being expelled from the party.
He also ripped into Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek over
reports of irregularities in the delivery of natural gas. He has also
been involved in the absorbing ongoing investigation of the "Deniz
Feneri" or Lighthouse Case about money sent from Germany to the
coffers of the AKP.
There is a lot of surprised talk about the choice of
KılıçdaroÄ ;?lu to run for the metropolitan
mayoralty of Istanbul. There are many who would like him to stay
within the CHP rather than be Istanbul’s metropolitan mayor, which
would mean that he will have to spend all of his time and thoughts
there. If he stayed in the CHP, he might be much more useful because
of his abilities to catch irregularities in reports and accusations.
Some think that the very correctness and honesty that
Kılıçdaro&#x C4;?lu represents will be enough for
him to win the mayoral election while others who know Deniz Baykal,
the general chairman of the CHP, believe that he might see him as a
rival and be intent on getting rid of him as he has done with other
rivals in the past. Over the question of whether or not
Kılıçdaro 4;?lu would have to resign his
place in Parliament, it has been ruled that he need not unless and
until he becomes the metropolitan mayor of Istanbul. Asked what
Kılıçdaro&#x C4;?lu’s platform in the mayoralty
race, he believes that everybody should have a comfortable life the
way people who live in New York, Paris or Tokyo have and people with a
restricted budget should be able to live like humans. Transportation
should be at world standards while the environment, air, sea,
etc. should enjoy the best infrastructure.
In addition education and health would also be supported then they are
now. "Istanbul’s resources should be for Istanbul and should be spent
for Istanbul," KılıçdaroÄ?l u concluded.