Opposition leader outplays Erdogan’s mockery via a movie scene
Main opposition CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has responded Turkish President’s political mockery against him in a similar style, saying farewell to Recep Tayyip Erdogan via a song from a Turkish movie.
“Hey, the gang of five, you know there was a song...” Kilicdaroglu said on Twitter, sharing a scene from the movie called “Organize Isler [Organized Work]” that a man reminds The Everly Brothers’ famous song “Bye Bye Love” to a gang’s members before they’ve beaten up hard.
On Tuesday, Turkish President Erdogan has invented a new campaign slogan for Kilicdaroglu, escalating his mocking tone against the CHP leader that has been ongoing for some time.
"Here is a new slogan for him after he liked the previous one: Bay bay Kemal," Erdogan wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, where “Bay” means “Mr.” in English, also a Turkish transliteration of “Bye”.
At the scene that Kilicdaroglu has shared, the man says; “You know there was a song, bye bye happiness… Follow me, all of you”, with the melody of the song. The tricky part was that “happiness” has a very similar pronunciation with the Turkish word “hepiniz”, meaning “all of you” in English.
Ey beşli çeteler, hani bir şarkı vardı... https://t.co/wCmQzqxI6P pic.twitter.com/KXyBACevLg
— Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (@kilicdarogluk) February 1, 2023
With his post, Kilicdaroglu meant to say “Goodbye” to Erdogan’s electoral alliance which is formed of five political parties, including his ultranationalist governing ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
For years, Erdogan rarely called his political rival by his full name, instead using the nickname "Bay Kemal," -roughly Mr. Kemal in English.
"Bay" for man and "bayan" for woman were coined in the early years of the Turkish Republic during a "language revolution" as equivalents to monsieur and madame in French.
Kilicdaroglu, however, launched a surprising counterattack last year when he used the nickname for himself as well, saying that "Mr. Kemal is coming."
Erdogan with his new slogan implied that Kilicdaroglu, if nominated as a presidential candidate against himself, is destined to fail.
