Erdogan attacks opposition mayors over virus aid

ANKARA: On the Turkish capital’s bridges and bus stops, Ankara mayor Mansur Yavas urges wealthier residents to help poorer citizens during the coronavirus pandemic by paying off their debts to grocers.

"Kindness is more contagious than disease," the advert proclaims, showing a large black book with the word "paid" in red. Despite a government block on donation campaigns by Yavas and Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in March, they have continued to help those in need.

The mayors, representing the main opposition CHP in an alliance with a smaller nationalist party, won the two biggest cities last year. Their success and growing popularity mean they are now seen as potential rivals to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The interior ministry has launched investigations into the mayors and the government insisted donations must go through its "National Solidarity" campaign. It has so far raised around two billion Turkish lira ($290 million) in the country which is hard hit by the outbreak with over 144,000 cases and 4,007 deaths.

The mayors’ success was the first time in 25 years Erdogan’s ruling AKP or its predecessors were not in charge of Ankara or Istanbul. Erdogan refused to accept Imamoglu’s initial victory in March 2019, and called for a re-run, citing corruption in the counting. Imamoglu won again with a bigger majority.

Deputy CHP chairman Seyit Torun said the government was "really disquieted" by the municipalities "fulfilling their responsibilities". "During elections, they claimed CHP municipalities would cut people’s assistance, and would do this and that," said Torun, who is in charge of CHP’s local administrations.

"They slandered us," he told AFP, adding: "But now the truth is out there." Erdogan suggested the municipalities made moves "which had been attempted by the PKK (Kurdish militants)" and the group blamed for the 2016 failed coup.

Both are outlawed as terrorist organisations in Turkey. "There is no point in having a state within a state," Erdogan said last month, accusing the mayors of acting illegally and showing off.

But the AKP’s Cevdet Yilmaz denied any political motives behind the government’s actions, telling foreign media Thursday: "We want them to work in coordination, not in isolation, from other initiatives."

Kemal Cokakoglu, Ankara municipality’s deputy general secretary, refused to be drawn on politics but insisted Yavas’ campaign was not illegal. "A city of around six million doesn’t have even a second, a minute, or an hour to show off, or the luxury either," Cokakoglu said.