I don’t
usually follow football (= soccer), but every four years I come alive for the
World Cup. This year it's taking place in Brazil.
These past weeks I’ve been
watching regularly, since Turkish TV (TRT 1 and 2) is broadcasting every match at
7 pm and (the first round) 10 pm or (second round on) 11 pm, convenient after
the work day is over.
My teams are now
either eliminated (USA & France) or never made it to the tournament in the
first place (Turkey), so I can enjoy the final games with equanimity. I’m sad to see Neymar out, though, for he was
a pleasure to watch. I wish him a speedy
recovery from his broken vertebra.
I’m learning a lot about the geography
of Brazil. Belo Horizonte, for example,
is a city I had never heard of. And I
had no idea it takes 13 hours to drive from Sao Paolo to Brasilia. The country is immense.
I also thought of it as being flat (Atlantic
beaches and Amazonian forests) but that’s a mistake. There are substantial
highlands and even, in the extreme northwest along the border with Venezuela a mountain
almost 3,000 meters high, the Pico de Neblina – almost always hidden in mist. I never had much desire to visit Brazil, a
country without the spectacular ruins of Mexico or Peru, but now I’m
curious. I shall look for a “Lonely
Planet – Brazil” and explore the touristic possibilities.
While the World Cup heads for its
climax, we in Turkey are preparing for the first-ever direct election of a president,
scheduled for August 10 and (if a run-off is needed) August 24. Heretofore, the
President of Turkey has been elected by the Parliament. Moreover, he (or she) should be
non-partisan, and a steady rudder through political storms.
This description hardly conforms to the
persona and ambition of the leading candidate, prime minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan. But he has long aspired to the
presidency, we all know it, and this past Tuesday, July 1st, at a large gathering
of AK Party faithful, he accepted his party’s nomination.
Opponents include Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu,
a dignified, accomplished, professorial conservative running as an Independent
(although backed by the main opposition parties), and Selahattin Demirtaş,
representing Kurdish parties. Although İhsanoğlu should appeal to AK Party
voters, his religious credentials being impeccable, at the moment most analysts think their
loyalty to Erdoğan is unshakable.
Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu (left) visits Hacı Bektaş
Should İhsanoğlu win, we can expect him
to uphold the traditional role of the president. Erdoğan, however, has already promised
change. He will not simply preside, but
will rule.
If Erdoğan is elected president, what
role will the legislative branch, the parliament, exercise? Will separation of powers (executive,
legislative, and judicial) be finished?
No one knows.
But the election is not yet a done deal,
and İhsanoğlu is beginning to speak out.
In an interview published in today’s Hürriyet Daily News, he advocates
keeping religion separate from politics, and notes a widespread desire for
peace, stability, and a change in the tenor of political discourse. He will not be a doormat that Erdoğan can
walk over easily.
A ripped, shredded campaign poster still
hangs off a lampost at the turn-off to our local shopping center, even though
municipal elections were held at the end of March. The forlorn poster is for Barış Aydın, a
nice-looking young man who stood as the AK Party’s candidate as mayor of
Çankaya, one of the central districts of Ankara. But Barış Aydın was destined to lose, no
matter how attractive the ads and posters, for Çankaya is a stronghold of the center-left
CHP (Republican People’s Party), the party founded by Atatürk.
Although Erdoğan’s AK Party, which rules
in Parliament, just squeaked by in Ankara overall, in the Çankaya district, its
over 500,000 voters went 65% for Alper Taşdelen, the candidate of the CHP. Barış Aydın received 22%. I trust the AK Party has rewarded him for
gamely accepting this sacrificial role.
