March Madness started early

TURKEY - In Brief 25 Feb 2014 by Atilla Yesilada

---

In our weekly we warned the investors: “Cosmo loves to kill a good buzz, so he warns all readers that the March Madness is about to start. March Madness is a very ugly and downright dirty campaign by all actors in Turkey to discredit and undermine their rivals using Machiavellian means to win the local elections. AKP is the most vulnerable, because it has the most to lose. Turkish experts have already marked on their calendars the key dates at which hostilities will reach intra-month peaks: March 2: The High Election Commission finalizes the candidate lists. If some candidates are sidelined after that date, the party will not be able to put up a replacement. Turkish experts believe that GM is saving its juiciest scandalous revelations to March to discredit AKP candidates. AKP is expected to do the same to key CHP candidates, like Sarigul in Istanbul and Kocaoglu in Izmir. 17 and 21 March: Depending on the methodology, these are the anniversaries of beloved Pastor Gulen leaving for U. S. to self-imposed exile. According to dissident websites, the GM has prepared a wonderful anniversary gift for their leader. The ugliest files on AKP will be served to the press at those dates to please him”. It is not March yet, but AKP and the Gulen Movement GM) began firing the heavy artillery. First the pro-AKP media headlined shocking allegations that pro-GM police and prosecutors had been wiretapping up to 10K names under the disguise of two anti-terror investigations. The list of those eavesdropped on reads like “Turkey’s who is who”. Of course the prosecutors at the centre of the controversy denied the claims. A few hours later, GM retaliated by posting a voice recording of a phon...