[Hurriyet Daily News] Weeks after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
"16 Turkish warriors" hit international headlines, several candidates have launched Ottoman-themed campaigns to be nominated for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Good idea. We've all missed The Sick Man of Europe.
For his campaign under the motto "All Together, New Turkey," Osman Yavuz, an AKP electoral candidate nominee in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, wore a börk, a piece headgear worn by Seljuk warriors and the first Ottoman sultans in the 14th century. The börk has recently become familiar to the Turkish public again, thanks to a TV drama about the era.
The New Turkey's stuck in the fifteenth century?
After going viral on social media on Feb. 25, with some users mocking and others supporting him, Yavuz told daily Hurriyet that Konya was once the capital of the Anatolian Seljuk Empire. "I am an advertiser," he said, vowing to "serve his city efficiently if elected."
I'd say that's reason enough to vote against him.
Other political hopefuls also managed to draw attention to their candidacy with their attire. Ersin Karababa, who nominated himself as an AKP candidate from the northern province of Tokat, appeared on posters dressed as a sultan from the 1600s or the 1700s.
"Vote for Me for Sultan!"
The AKP's self-nominated Ankara candidate Cihangir Tahir, meanwhile, went even further by adding an Ottoman-style moustache to his costume.
I don't think he went so far as to grow it.
His poster also presented him photoshopped next to a picture of President Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan, who he dubbed "my spiritual father" and "my spiritual mother."
Many social media users mocking the AKP's latest sartorial trend responded sarcastically, with mock campaign materials for fake candidates, such as one claiming his place "in the race to win public tenders" wearing an Ottoman fez.
"The first timeEver I saw your fez..."