The joining of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay to the AKP has sparked debate on the political agenda. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inviting Tugay's wife to the stage during the badge-pinning ceremony became one of the most talked-about moments of the event.
Tugay's previous response to a question about whether he would join the AKP, "It is out of the question, my wife would divorce me," has come back to the fore. The fact that his wife was also on stage while the badge was being pinned on Tugay was interpreted in conjunction with these words.
Journalist Fatih Altaylı expressed the view in his column that Erdoğan had consciously staged this scene. Stating that Erdoğan had not forgotten Tugay's past remark, Altaylı evaluated the invitation of his wife to the stage as a political message.
Erdoğan had not forgotten this sentence and had written it down. With great political mastery at the joining ceremony, he invited to the stage the wife who would divorce Cemil Tugay if he joined the AK Party.
Altaylı argued that this move increased the symbolic weight of the ceremony. Stating that Erdoğan's message was "very powerful," Altaylı expressed that the scene should be evaluated together with Tugay's past statement.
While Tugay's transition to the AKP has become the focus of criticism, especially due to his past statements, this image at the badge-pinning ceremony has become the central element of the social and political debate.
News Source: 12punto
