Turkey: Ruling party deputy resigns, joins opposition

A deputy from Turkey’s ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) announced his resignation from his party and the parliament and joined the Good Party from opposition.

 Ahmet Esref Fakibaba, the former agriculture minister who served as a deputy for three terms said he was sorry to leave friends in AKP but happy that he will no longer be with some people “who do not comply with his political and moral values."

 Fakibaba said he thought of quitting politics and retiring, but Good Party leader Meral Aksener convinced him to join her party.

 Fakibaba’s Career

 Fakibaba, who served as a doctor in state hospital in Urfa for twelve years before joining the AKP and becoming the city’s mayor in 2004.

 In the next local elections in 2009 he fell on bad terms with the AKP and became an independent mayor of the city but after four years, he joined AKP again.

 During the June and November general elections in 2015, he was elected as an AKP deputy for Sanliurfa. Between 2017 and 2018, he served as the Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock. He was elected as an AKP deputy again in the 2018 general elections.

 Fakibaba-AKP Relations

 Fakıbaba's recent statements caused a split between him and his party again.

 In 2018, an AKP MP, Ibrahim Halil Yildiz had visited a shop owned by the Senyasar family. After a fight broke out, three members of the Senyasar family were killed.

 Years after the incident, Fakibaba said that he could not forgive himself since he referred to the event as a “terror incident,” since the Senyasar family voted for the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). “It is not shameful to vote for HDP,” Fakibaba said later.

After his statement he was reportedly threatened by the Yildiz family. Fakibaba said that he will never bow to threats from those who were offended by the statements he made on TV. “I will never stop standing up against injustice and defending justice," Fakibaba said.

On Wednesday, Fakibaba criticized the current Mayor of Sanliurfa Metropolitan Municipality, Zeynel Abidin Beyazgul. Fakibaba said: “Instead of selling the plots of land with each of their flats being sold for 10-12 million (Liras), would not it be better if you build houses with the help of the Municipality company so that the people of Urfa would benefit instead of a few people earning the astronomical profits.”