Altaylı says AKP will sideline YENİ Party before vote

Journalist Fatih Altaylı said in an Oct. 12 Sözcü column that AKP would reduce engagement with YENİ Party before the election, citing one Kılıçdaroğlu TV appearance with 28,000 YouTube views.

Altaylı’s Oct. 12 column matters because it frames opposition visibility as an electoral battleground: he compared that 28,000 figure with 1.5 million views for Ali Babacan on Teke Tek.

The column said Kılıçdaroğlu recently returned to television after months away from public and media exposure. Altaylı said Kılıçdaroğlu appeared on TV100 in the summer and on KRT last week, with the latter drawing 26,000 views.

Altaylı argued that the ruling AKP’s interest was not the size of those audiences, but the wider effect created when Kılıçdaroğlu’s remarks are repeated elsewhere. “Böylelikle YENİ Parti’nin görünürlüğü azalacak, Kayyum’un partisinin görünürlüğü ise artırılacak,” he wrote.

The column also said Kılıçdaroğlu had accused YENİ Party leader Özel over municipal candidate choices. Altaylı disputed that account, writing that the mayors Kılıçdaroğlu referred to had been elected while Kılıçdaroğlu was CHP chairman.

The report is based on Altaylı’s commentary and does not include responses from AKP, YENİ Party, Özel or Kılıçdaroğlu. No election date or formal party strategy document was cited in the supplied material.

Source: opinion column, Sözcü, Oct. 12