Erdogan’s female competition: This is how the conservative Meral Aksener of the “Good Party” policy ticks

Meral Aksener is certain: Turkey will see early elections for parliament and the presidency this year, two years before the regular date. Probably in June, she says.

The 64-year-old leader of the opposition IYI party is systematically preparing for it. She travels through the country, speaks to people in small craft businesses and others who feel left behind by politics in Ankara. She is committed to women’s rights and brings representatives of small professional associations onto the stage when giving speeches to give them a voice.

This is paying off: According to surveys, Aksener’s party could soon become the kingmaker. Even President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s top political predator, treats her with respect. Aksener is dangerous for him, because she comes from the nationalist camp in which elections in Turkey are won and lost.

In terms of political experience, Aksener can definitely compete with Erdogan, who is two years his senior.

The historian gave up her university job in 1994 to go to parliament for the right-wing conservative party of the Right Path, headed by then Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. Two years later she was the Turkish Interior Minister, the only woman in this position to date.

The “Good Party” was founded in 2017

Her term of office fell in the darkest years of the Turkish war against the Kurdish terrorist organization PKK, when the state murdered thousands of alleged PKK members and supporters by special commandos and mafia killers. Ciller’s government was ousted from office by the military in 1997.

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Aksener’s new political home became the right-wing National Movement Party (MHP) of Devlet Bahceli, Erdogan’s current coalition partner. But five years ago she fell out with Bahceli, resigned from the MHP and founded the IYI party in 2017 – that means the “Good Party”.

Aksener found support from the left-wing national CHP. With her, the IYI party founded an alliance that is supported by the Kurdish party HDP as an unofficial third partner. The alliance inflicted heavy defeats on Erdogan in the local elections two years ago: the AKP lost the mayor offices of Istanbul and Ankara to the opposition.

The government was shocked by the unity of the previously divided opposition. Today, according to some polls, the CHP, HDP and IYI party together could reach a majority in Ankara’s parliament. If they agree on a common presidential candidate, things could be tight for Erdogan.

Your role: tip the scales

Depending on the survey institute, the IYI party is nine to 13 percent and thus ahead of the MHP. With an election result of this magnitude, Aksener’s party could become an indispensable partner for both the CHP and Erdogan’s AKP. Erdogan and his partner Bahceli are therefore trying to separate Aksener from the opposition association. Bahceli has called on Aksener several times to return to the MHP.

Aksener can only work with Erdogan if the president agrees to return to the parliamentary system of government – which would amount to his own disempowerment.
Unlike the CHP, which has exhausted its voter potential at around 25 percent, the IYI party can hope for dissatisfied right-wing conservative and nationalist voters.

Criticism of corruption and nepotism

There are more and more of them because the economy is doing badly under Erdogan and because, from the perspective of many voters, the government is sinking more and more into corruption and nepotism. Almost 70 percent of MHP voters complain that their own economic situation is worse today than it was a year ago, as pollster Özer Sencar said on the Internet television channel Medyascope.

Aksener has also joined the campaign by women’s rights groups to curb violence against women. She calls for more protection for women by the state and thus addresses conservative women who have previously voted for the AKP.
Even the question of how Aksener, as a hardened nationalist, can justify her indirect cooperation with the Kurdish party HDP, has so far not stumbled her.

Diplomatically skillful reaction

Her opponents from the AKP and MHP are waiting for an opportunity to represent her as an assistant to the HDP – for example a few months ago when the imprisoned Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas announced that he would visit Aksener after his release.

But Aksener’s response to Demirtas took the wind out of the sails of the critics. It is customary for the Kurds to invite opponents of a blood feud into the house when they knocked on the door, she said. She’ll keep it that way.