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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 000925 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/24/2029 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL OSCE TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: ADANA'S WILY OLD FOX ON THE ART OF POLITICS 
 
REF: A. ADANA 19 
     ¶B. ADANA 15 
     ¶C. ADANA 12 
     ¶D. 08 ADANA 50 
 
Classified By: Adana Principal Officer Eric Green, for reasons 1.4 (b, 
d). 
 
This is a Consulate Adana cable. 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY.  Turkey's longest-serving big-city mayor, 
Aytac Durak in Adana, proved unusually talkative in recent 
meetings with us.  He highlighted service, independence, and 
being able to turn tables on one's opponents as keys to his 
success in the Turkish political game.  Durak's career 
underscores an enduring fact of Turkish political life: 
personality usually trumps party labels as an indicator of 
political success.  After leaving the governing Justice and 
Development Party (AKP), he confounded his erstwhile party 
colleagues by winning his fifth term as Mayor of Adana in the 
March 2009 local elections under the Nationalist Movement 
Party (MHP) banner.  Although being in an opposition party 
has given Durak greater freedom to speak his mind, criticize 
the national government, and to play the victim, his 
municipality has also felt the pain of tightened purse 
strings as the AKP is no longer inclined to reward a city now 
in the enemy camp.  END SUMMARY. 
 
---------------------------- 
Claim to Nonpartisan Service 
---------------------------- 
 
¶2. (C)  In recent meetings with Consul and poloff, an 
unusually talkative Adana Mayor Aytac Durak shared with us 
some of his thoughts on what has allowed him to survive "and 
thrive" in Turkish politics.  Durak claimed that first and 
foremost it was his ability to provide services to his 
constituents that delivered a record fifth term as mayor of 
Adana in the March 2009 local elections.  He said his 
experience as an engineer combined with his natural 
intelligence allowed him to deliver what the citizens of 
Adana needed and wanted.  The mayor proudly displays a poster 
in his office of a blow-up of a newspaper front page 
announcing his first mayoral victory in 1984, which indicated 
that he would not bring partisanship to municipality 
services.  He highlights this independence and 
nonpartisanship as his motto for his administrations.  With a 
grin, Durak claimed the poster caused Prime Minister Recep 
Tayyip Erdogan, whom he unflatteringly compared to Iranian 
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, some consternation when Durak 
hosted him in his office after his 2004 victory (when Durak 
won under the AKP banner). 
 
------------------- 
Flag of Convenience 
------------------- 
 
¶3.  (C) Nevertheless, Durak acknowledged that there was a 
heavy price to be paid for his falling out with the governing 
Justice and Development Party (AKP) (REF A).  He said he lost 
about 30 points on a 100-point scale by being on the "outs" 
with the AKP.  He said he loses more points by refusing to 
play the party patronage game.  Last, he claimed to lose yet 
more points by violating the cardinal rule of politics: 
remembering people's names.  (Comment:  We suspect Durak was 
being somewhat self-deprecating here.  After over 45 years in 
politics, we suspect that he has a substantial mental rolodex 
of contacts and acquaintances.  End Comment.) 
 
¶4.  (C) Durak noted that when he left the AKP in the months 
leading up to the March 2009 local elections, he had 
initially thought to run as an independent but he was 
convinced by his advisers that he needed the umbrella of a 
national party organization (REF B).  Durak claimed that MHP 
chairman Devlet Bahceli accepted his candidacy on Durak's 
terms and understood that Durak would not open the 
municipality as a network of patronage for MHP members.  "Did 
you see a gaggle of MHP members outside my door waiting for 
jobs?" he asked rhetorically.  Though one journalist contact 
told us local MHP officials claim Durak has accepted one of 
 
ANKARA 00000925  002 OF 003 
 
 
them as a political advisor, we expect the mayor to keep his 
new party at arm's length.  Durak further underlined his 
independence when we queried his thoughts on the prospects 
for Abdullahlatif Sener's new Turkey Party (TP).  Durak 
wished Sener success -- implying that he is much more 
sympathetic to the TP's center-right approach than with MHP's 
strident nationalism. 
 
¶5.  (C) Durak noted that, in the end, the MHP national 
organization did practically nothing for him during the local 
election campaign and he had to rely mostly on his own 
resources.  But he said that being a member of MHP did allow 
him to be much more vocal now in his criticism of the central 
government.  As a member of an opposition party, he could 
more openly tap into Adana's feeling of neglect and 
resentment toward the GOT.  When he was a member of the AKP, 
he had to be much more discreet about his complaints, he 
said.  Durak suggested that "when" he runs for a sixth term, 
he may revisit that idea of running as an independent.  (The 
day he stops working will probably be the day he dies, he 
joked; in 2014, he'll be 76 years old.) 
 
-------------------- 
Adana the Step Child 
-------------------- 
 
¶6.  (C) In a June 12 conversation, the Mayor noted his 
disappointment with this year's International Golden Boll 
Film Festival, held in Adana during June 8-14, saying "the 
people of Adana are happy, but I'm not."  Although this was 
the 16th such festival held in Adana, the Golden Boll 
Festival's profile is dwarfed by Antalya's Golden Orange Film 
Festival.  Durak praised the efforts of the local press and 
others to highlight the disparity of support from the GOT for 
Antalya's festival versus Adana's festival.  On June 5, the 
daily "Ekspres" complained: "Is Adana a step child?"  The 
next day the chairman of Adana's Arts Council, Haluk Uygur, 
echoed that complaint in a written statement to the Ministry 
of Culture and Tourism, noting that the government had 
allocated 5 million TL (about $3.2 million) to the Golden 
Orange Festival but only 250,000 TL (roughly $160,000) to the 
Golden Boll.  Uygur also pointed out that state-run Turkish 
Radio and Television, which had previously aired the Golden 
Boll Festival live every year, discontinued the practice this 
year. 
 
¶7. (C)  Mayor Durak suggested to us the AKP government's lack 
of support was a direct result of his now being a member of 
an opposition party.  He had earlier noted that, although the 
allocation to the city's budget coming from the central 
government was largely fixed based on the city's population, 
there were various discretionary funds for roads and other 
projects that could flow to the city.  In the wake of his 
March victory, these funds had dried up.  Durak is not alone 
in his concern about the fiscal squeeze being placed on the 
city.  On May 29, the chairman of the board of the Chamber of 
Commerce, Saban Bas, told us that in light of the local 
election results, the AKP now considered Adana to be a "dead 
city." 
 
---------------------- 
AKP Takes More Revenge 
---------------------- 
 
¶8.  (C) On May 4, the AKP government also sought to clip 
Durak's wings by removing him from the chairmanship of the 
Turkish Municipalities Union (TBB), saying the March local 
elections required a new TBB board.  Durak cried foul, noting 
that the government had violated proper procedure and that 
the High Election Board had not yet even officially published 
the results of the elections.  Probably anticipating he had 
no chance to be re-elected to the TBB chairmanship, Durak 
boycotted the May 28 TBB convention, where AKP Istanbul Mayor 
Kadir Topbas was elected.  In early June, Durak decided not 
to run again for the chairmanship of the Cukurova 
Municipalities Union, a position he had held for 12 years -- 
a self-abnegating move that sympathetic local press hailed as 
a "democratic lesson to everyone." 
 
------------------------ 
 
ANKARA 00000925  003 OF 003 
 
 
Playing the Victim Works 
------------------------ 
 
¶9.  (C) Durak claimed the second rule of politics was being 
able to turn your opponents' attacks to your advantage.  The 
controversy surrounding the funding for Golden Boll Film 
Festival has allowed the mayor to assume the mantle of 
victimhood in the face of the AKP's attempts to punish him. 
The press scrutiny of the disparity of GOT support for the 
Golden Orange versus the Golden Boll apparently put the AKP 
government on the defensive.  In fact, as we spoke, Durak 
fielded a telephone call from Culture and Tourism Minister 
Ertugrul Gunay, who apologized for not attending the festival 
and promised to increase the government's funding.  After the 
call, Durak quipped, "See, I did not even have to do 
anything.  That's politics." 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10.  (C) Although rumors persist that the government wants 
prosecutors to file corruption charges -- probably deserved 
-- against Durak, for now, he is reveling in the role of 
David to the AKP's Goliath.  Durak's success shows that, at 
least at the local level, personality can trump party 
identification (and the AKP's strong organization and deep 
pockets) at the ballot box (REFS C and D).  Durak has 
suggested reinforcing this by changing the election law to 
allow municipal election ballots to show the candidates' 
photographs and names rather than the party symbol, like the 
nonpartisan elections of village or neighborhood muhtars 
(headmen).  The AKP government has signaled that local 
government administration and election law reform are on its 
agenda, but Durak's idea is unlikely to gain traction with 
party leaders in Ankara obsessed with maintaining a tight 
grip of control.  Nonetheless, now serving under his fourth 
party banner, we expect the mayor to call the shots in his 
marriage of convenience with the MHP, which surely will 
quickly learn that Durak will always put his interests ahead 
of any party's. 
 
Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey 
 
JEFFREY