Turgut Altinok, candidate for the People's Alliance for the Municipality of Ankara, at the opening of the "Nowruz" exhibition (Anatolia)

A Turkish nationalist politician and a prominent leader in the Justice and Development Party. He has extensive experience in municipalities. He headed the municipality of Ketchoran in Ankara 4 times. His political path witnessed a number of transformations, as he moved between 4 parties, while maintaining his ideological character and his constant call to reject differences and separatist tendencies.

Birth and upbringing

Turgut Altinok was born in 1962 in the Bala region of Ankara, to a family whose roots go back to the Oghuz Turks (Ghaz), who came to Anatolia in the 16th century AD, to live a Bedouin life in the Erzurum region (Land of Rum) in northeastern Turkey, before moving with political and social developments. To the Bala district of Ankara, where Turgut was born.

He is married to Soraya Altinok, who is known for her activity in local work with limited media appearances, and has 4 children.

Turgut Altinok at a Nowruz celebration in the Necip Fadil Kisakurek Theater Hall in Ankara (Anatolia)

Study and scientific training

He completed his primary education at “Ketserin Fevzi Altinoglu” School and his secondary education at “Ketserin Kalaba” High School.

He studied law at the Azerbaijani Center for International Relations, received an “honorary” doctorate for his contributions to the development of Turkish-Azerbaijani relations, and then became a professor at Kazakhstan Abay State University.

Political experience

From the beginning, Altinok entered politics, emphasizing his nationalist tendency due to his belonging to the Oghuz dynasty, to which the Beni Othman dynasty also originates. This is why, at the beginning of his youth, he joined the “National Movement” party, when he was 22 years old, and his star quickly shone within the corridors of the party, and he became the head of its branch in Ankara Governorate and member of the Central Executive Council, when he was 24 years old.

Altinok received the “Special Red Apple of Turkish Global Urbanism” award (Anatolia)

On September 12, 1980, Turkey witnessed a military coup against the government of Suleiman Demirel. It was the bloodiest in the country’s history, as it was accompanied by executions, violence, and human rights violations. However, this political shock that Turkey witnessed did not prevent Altinok from moving forward with his career and rise, as he became After this coup, Deputy Secretary-General of the Nationalist Movement Party, Alp Arslan Türkish.

Altinok's ambition did not limit himself to party positions. Rather, his activity shifted to service fields by being nominated as mayor of the municipality of Ketchoran in the state of Ankara for the "Nationalist Movement" party in the 1994 elections. He won and gained wide fame during his presidency of the municipality, due to the activities and reforms he carried out at the city level. And its services.

The year 1997 witnessed the first partisan shift in Altinok's political life, as he moved from the Nationalist Movement Party after the death of its president, Alp Arslan Türkis, to the Virtue Party. The party nominated him in the 1999 municipal elections for mayor of Kechoran, and he was able for the second time to obtain this position, despite this change.

Turgut Altinok moved between several parties in his political career (Anadolu Agency)

On June 22, 2001, the Turkish Constitutional Court decided to dissolve the Islamic Virtue Party, and two wings emerged from it, one of which was renewal, the Justice and Development Party, led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the other, traditional, that followed the path of Necmettin Erbakan, which was the Happiness Party, which was led at the beginning of its founding by Raji Qutan, who was Altinok must choose one of two approaches to complete his political career, so he chose the Justice and Development Party.

Altinok ran in the 2004 local elections for the mayor of Ketchoran, this time as a representative of the Justice and Development Party. His fans did not let him down and he won the elections, obtaining this position 3 times, representing 3 parties.

In the 2009 elections, Altinok ran in a race within the Justice and Development Party to be its candidate for mayor of Ankara, but he lost to Melih Gokcek. In 2013, he resigned from the ruling party and ran for mayor of Ketchoran for the Grand Union Party, but he lost for the first time in this municipality, and came in second place by obtaining About 30% of the votes.

In 2019, Altinok returned to the Justice and Development Party and ran in the municipal elections as a candidate for mayor of Kitchoran, returning to the position he lost for 10 years as his political ambitions escalated and his party shifts increased.

Turgut Altinok during the opening of the "Nowruz" exhibition in Esztergom Castle (Anatolia)

Party and ideological shifts

These transformations that Altinok experienced between parties highlight an important feature of his political personality. At first glance, he appears to be a pragmatist. He left the Nationalist Movement Party when his candidacy for the mayorship of Ketchoran was rejected and moved to the Virtue Party and won the mayorship as its candidate. Then he left the Justice and Development Party after He lost an internal competition and was nominated on the lists of the Grand Union Party for the mayor of Kitchoran.

However, the four parties to which he belonged and worked generally shared a conservative nationalist character, which indicates his attachment to his early roots dating back to the Oghuz, and Altinok confirms this by his theorizing of the idea of ​​the Turkish world, which includes with Turkey the countries of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in one national project.

He also adopts the philosophy of one of the Alevi religious figures, Haj Bektaş, “Let us be one, let us be great, let us be alive,” an idea that reduces the focus on the contradictions between parties within a single ideology in order to emphasize the values ​​of unity, tolerance, and justice.

Altinok (right) headed the Kecioran municipality in Ankara 4 times and moved between 4 parties (Anatolia)

Ankara word

The Justice and Development Party's strategy in the 2024 municipal elections appeared to be based on avoiding everything that led to the loss of the mayorship of Ankara in 2019. In this context, it did not accept a repeat of the adventure that deprived it of the nationalists' votes. This is why the nationalist Altinok was presented on the list of the People's Alliance against the nationalist Mansur Yavaş on List of the Republican People's Party.

Here, the party found itself facing another challenge, which is the Kurdish voice, which does not accept candidates with an explicit nationalist tendency. However, Altinok instead sought to win the votes of the Alawites, given his intellectual tolerance for them and his relations with their notables, while trying to overcome the problem of the Kurdish voice by calling for the rejection of Disagreements and separatist tendencies, focusing on the symbolism of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and drawing inspiration from the spirit of the War of Independence, which emphasizes the unity of a homeland that the Turks and Kurds defended together.

Altinok also relied on his history in municipalities and his achievements in the municipality of Ketchoran, which gave him its votes 4 times, and he worked to transform it into an important cultural and tourist destination within the capital, Ankara.

Source: Turkish press