Fethiye Mayor Resigns

[Rimms]

Behçet Saatci Fethiye's Mayor has resigned from his political party following a dispute between himself and his party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). He was supported by a further 12 members of the council who also resigned as a measure of support for the mayor.

I was surprised to read that this resignation will not affect his position as mayor and he will continue as before. I must say that I'm happy for him to stay on, I think he has done some really good work and improved Fethiye significantly over recent years, we also had the chance to meet him personally earlier this year in conjunction with the local charities and he comes across as a thoroughly nice and decent man. With elections looming next year, I hope he can sort it out.

[Scunner]

He was basically booted for his Bayram message posters which I saw in Fethiye and thought they were awesome and well meant. As I understand it, Erdogan wants to return powers to the ethnic groups that made up the new country of Turkey (such as Kurds but many others) and Behçet Bey's message was along the lines of ONE Country, ONE language, ONE Flag, ONE Turkey (terrible version but I can't quite remember but you get the idea).

I thought it was correct, inspirational, and in these current political climate, very brave.

He's not everyone's cup of tea but the development of Fethiye under his terms in office is undeniably positive. I would hope he is popular enough to win enough support locally without his old party, and I believe he is.

[Scunner]

Sorry I should have said he resigned from his party before they expelled him.

Poster:



Thanks to Hurryiet Daily News for a proper translation:

"The greeting text began with two sentences made up of Kurdish and Turkish words in mixed order, which did not make sense at first glance. The message then continues in Turkish as follows: “You understood, right? This is why it is one nation, one motherland, one flag, one state!”

[tinkerman]

I agree with George, seemed to be a really nice guy, but maybe the writing is on the wall with the new Govenor of Mugla being a Erdogan supporter and Fethiye changing its borders bringing in Oludeniz???

[Eric]

Seems weird to me that the MHP ( a party in opposition) were going to kick the Mayor out of the party for speaking against the Government!  No wonder the AK Party keeps getting re elected when opposition behaves like this.  As one of our Turkish friends said, just yesterday, the Turkish people have the government they deserve because they do nothing about changing it.

[usedbustickets]

Seems weird to me that the MHP ( a party in opposition) were going to kick the Mayor out of the party for speaking against the Government!  No wonder the AK Party keeps getting re elected when opposition behaves like this.  As one of our Turkish friends said, just yesterday, the Turkish people have the government they deserve because they do nothing about changing it.

Eric that's a sound observation from your Turkish friend.

[Ian]

According to the Fethiye Times - he was criticising recent government reforms concerning using Kurdish in private schools:

"The message hit the national headlines on 10th October when, it was reported, a message criticising the Governments latest democracy reforms that would allow Kurdish to be used as a primary language of education in private schools was published on posters around Fethiye."

Not sure why that breaks party rules - maybe someone can enlighten us?