AK PARTY MOVES STEP BY STEP TOWARD FORMING

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 008310

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/15/2012
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINS TU
SUBJECT: AK PARTY MOVES STEP BY STEP TOWARD FORMING
GOVERNMENT

REF: ANKARA 8252


(U) Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons: 1.5
(b,d).



1. (C) We understand from top AK Party official Bulent Arinc
that in his Nov. 15 call on President Sezer, AK Party
chairman Erdogan submitted AK number two Abdullah Gul's name
as AK's first choice for Prime Minister. Arinc intimated
that Gul is AK's preferred candidate not only owing to his
popularity within the party's grassroots and experience both
in Parliament and foreign affairs, but also to maintain the
delicate balances among Erdogan's ambitious group of senior
advisors.



2. (C) However, AK has seen that Sezer prefers to choose
candidates for senior positions not according to political
criteria but from among a narrow circle of statist
acquaintances from his university class. In this regard,
Arinc noted Sezer's rectitude but said that Sezer, an
arch-statist, does not understand the political scene and in
fact deprecates the nature and role of politics (we have
heard the same from others). Therefore, Erdogan offered the
name of former senior bureaucrat Vecdi Gonul, whom Sezer had
worked with previously and who is from Sezer's generation, as
an alternative. Arinc opined that, if Sezer gives out the
mandate to form the government by Nov. 17, AK could have a
government in place by late Nov.



3. (C) Arinc admitted obliquely that he had had hopes of
being tapped as Prime Minister but, laughing, said he had
withdrawn his name from consideration because he knew the
Deep State (ref) had even more compromising video tapes of
him in a (previously) radical Islamist mode than of Erdogan.
Saying he hopes to be elected Speaker of Parliament Nov. 19
or 20, Arinc was caught off guard when we noted that just
before our meeting a leading TV news channel reported Sezer
wants to influence Parliament's choice of speaker. Arinc
remarked uneasily that Sezer has no constitutional authority
over Parliament's decision.
PEARSON