Dirty Politics in Turkey
We now enter the ritual phase of the general election campaign in which politicians are captured on film in compromising acts with their mistresses. When this happens in Turkey, it is customary to blame Fethullah Gülen, who controls everything, apparently, including these politicians' pants-zippers and their free will.
The wave of “tape scandals” hitting Turkey’s nationalist party is part of a ruling party-backed campaign to push the opposition party below the 10 percent election threshold, senior opposition politicians have claimed.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office with special authority launched a probe Monday into the release online of hidden-camera tapes of members of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP. The latest, more R-rated footage, released just one month before the June 12 general election, appears to show two senior party members with young female university students.
The ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, on Monday rejected MHP chief Devlet Bahçeli’s suggestions that the ruling party and the Gülen religious community might be possible perpetrators of the scandal.
While the technique of ridding oneself of political rivals by means of a well-timed leaking of a sex tape is hardly unknown to the West, in Turkey the ritual has certain unique cultural adaptations:
In the latest videotape scandal, two video clips showing Bülent Didinmez, a deputy chairman, and former MHP İstanbul provincial branch leader and parliamentary candidate İhsan Barutçu having extramarital sex, was released on Sunday. The scandal has caused outrage in the MHP. The scandal comes about a week after a videotape showing deputy chairmen and Adana deputy Recai Yıldırım and Kırşehir deputy Metin Çobanoğlu having an intimate conversation with two women. They both stepped down after MHP leader Bahçeli publicly demanded their resignation. Didinmez and Barutçu defended themselves saying that they had taken the women in the videos as their wives through a religious marriage ceremony. The two men claimed that many Justice and Development party (AK Party) members had second or third wives outside their civil marriages and professed they were doing the same thing.
Ah yes, of course.
Man, I pity these fools. You do not mess with Turkish women like that. My upstairs neighbor's daughter figured out her hopeless schlub of a boyfriend was cheating on her last month. At first I was completely on her side, but we're in the fifth straight week of ripping him a new one, morning to night, and now I just feel sorry for him. He's been punished enough. So has the whole neighborhood.
Those politicians are never going to hear the end of it.
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Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Dirty Politics in Turkey
Well, I guess it's better if their personal goal is to take over and exploit a brothel, than take over and exploit the military or intelligence agencies.
May '10
Re: Dirty Politics in Turkey
Maybe they can't handle the sexual pressure of being bombarded with suggestive pictures of Hillary Clinton and that Audrey girl. They should really blame America.
Apr '11
Re: Dirty Politics in Turkey
I vaguely remember someone trying to do something like this to Nikki Haley in the primary. I don't have a link, but it was something along the lines of a couple guys claiming they had had affairs with her.
May '10
Re: Dirty Politics in Turkey
It has become a catchphrase at Ace's place. "Sacred honor compels me..." to say she and I totally did it. Yep, sacred honor compels me to say that. One of the guys was named Will Folks. The other was obviously gay. Both were employed by her opponents.
This is why I always look a little askance at the South Carolina GOP. They haven't quite caught the wave of conservative hot chicks sweeping the nation. It's of inestimable value, so why undermine it? Or if you must, do so convincingly.