So change has come to the Turkish center-left: Kemal Kilicdaroglu has been elected as the new leader of CHP, the main opposition party in Turkey.
"Kilicdaroglu" and "Recep Bey" were two trending topics on Twitter's global scale for a few hours today, surprising many non-Turkish users, who kept asking "What is Recep Bey?"
Recep Bey is the new first name of Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Recep was actually his second name that he never preferred to use. It may be regarded as a decision of brand management on behalf of AKP, as Tayyip is a rarer name. Kilicdaroglu is now addressing Erdogan in a way that he doesn't like -with the name which is much more common, even ordinary, pulling the Prime Minister to the level of us, the mortals.
Erdogan couldn't hide the fact that he's irritated, as he's only talking about CHP nowadays, hinting that he really see the main opposition as a competitive rival in the upcoming elections. And it seems that the Zeitgeist is also against Erdogan.
While the number of journalists who followed CHP's congress was double the number of journalists who followed the last AKP congress, as well as Barack Obama's Turkey visit, Erdogan's shambolic psychology forced him to make errors in his recent speeches. His latest gaffe was about the latest mining accident in Turkey. Erdogan has called the deadly disaster as fate, prompting public anger.
Like I was doubtful before US elections if Obama could bring real change to his country, now I doubt if Kilicdaroglu can make a substantial difference in Turkey's hegemonic ideology. However, his rise is still emancipating, as Recep Bey cannot see himself as a postmodern sultan anymore.
