US embassy cable - 02ANKARA8310

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 008310 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/15/2012 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PINS, TU 
SUBJECT: AK PARTY MOVES STEP BY STEP TOWARD FORMING 
GOVERNMENT 
 
REF: ANKARA 8252 
 
 
(U) Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons: 1.5 
(b,d). 
 
 
1. (C) We understand from top AK Party official Bulent Arinc 
that in his Nov. 15 call on President Sezer, AK Party 
chairman Erdogan submitted AK number two Abdullah Gul's name 
as AK's first choice for Prime Minister.  Arinc intimated 
that Gul is AK's preferred candidate not only owing to his 
popularity within the party's grassroots and experience both 
in Parliament and foreign affairs, but also to maintain the 
delicate balances among Erdogan's ambitious group of senior 
advisors. 
 
 
2. (C) However, AK has seen that Sezer prefers to choose 
candidates for senior positions not according to political 
criteria but from among a narrow circle of statist 
acquaintances from his university class.  In this regard, 
Arinc noted Sezer's rectitude but said that Sezer, an 
arch-statist, does not understand the political scene and in 
fact deprecates the nature and role of politics (we have 
heard the same from others).  Therefore, Erdogan offered the 
name of former senior bureaucrat Vecdi Gonul, whom Sezer had 
worked with previously and who is from Sezer's generation, as 
an alternative.  Arinc opined that, if Sezer gives out the 
mandate to form the government by Nov. 17, AK could have a 
government in place by late Nov. 
 
 
3. (C) Arinc admitted obliquely that he had had hopes of 
being tapped as Prime Minister but, laughing, said he had 
withdrawn his name from consideration because he knew the 
Deep State (ref) had even more compromising video tapes of 
him in a (previously) radical Islamist mode than of Erdogan. 
Saying he hopes to be elected Speaker of Parliament Nov. 19 
or 20, Arinc was caught off guard when we noted that just 
before our meeting a leading TV news channel reported Sezer 
wants to influence Parliament's choice of speaker.  Arinc 
remarked uneasily that Sezer has no constitutional authority 
over Parliament's decision. 
PEARSON