UBP leadership candidate: If you were me, you wouldn’t say anything either

Kutlu Evren, one of the candidates for the leadership of the north’s largest political party the UBP who was reportedly summoned to the Turkish embassy’s residence and told to withdraw his candidacy, broke his silence on Friday night to say that others in his position would also have kept their mouths shut.

Evren and fellow candidate Olgun Amcaoglu had not made any public statements since reports first surfaced of their alleged summoning to the embassy’s residence in Ayios Epiktitos, but Evren was reached by newspaper Yeni Duzen on Friday evening.

He did not have much information to hand out, telling the newspaper he had “no comment” to make on the reports, but then added, “if you were me, you wouldn’t say anything either.”

Evren is currently a backbench ‘MP’ but has previously served in the cabinets of five ‘prime ministers’; Omer Kalyoncu, Huseyin Ozgurgun, Ersin Tatar, Ersan Saner, and Faiz Sucuoglu.

He has reportedly won the support of the MHP, one of the parties in Turkey which is part of the People’s Alliance – an Ak Party-led group of parties which often fields joint candidates and votes together in the Turkish parliament.

In this regard, some observers have claimed Evren’s candidacy is effectively a proxy of a power struggle in Turkey between the Ak Party and the MHP.

Meanwhile, fellow candidate Hasan Tacoy said on Saturday he will formally file the paperwork to submit his candidacy for the party’s leadership on Monday.

Tacoy has been vocally critical of incumbent party leader and ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel for around a year, having announced his intention to challenge Ustel for the leadership on August 1, 2023 and then subsequently having been sacked as ‘labour minister’ ten days later.

A “UBP source” told newspaper Yeni Duzen Tacoy is supported by former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

He has run for the party’s leadership on two previous occasions. The first time he ran, in 2020, the leadership race was abandoned and Ersan Saner was installed as interim party leader due to fears that differences between Tacoy and rival Faiz Sucuoglu would tear the party apart.

He then stood as a candidate again when the race was re-run in 2021, being beaten by Sucuoglu.