Karayalcin signals he will run for Ankara Mayor

Karayalcin served as Ankara mayor before he ran for Parliament. He was among the most popular of Ankara mayors.

Last week, New Turkey Party leader Ismail Cem called on the leaders of the Social Democratic and Democratic left parties to unite under the same umbrella before the upcoming local elections scheduled for April 2004.

Cem noted that parties naming themselves Social Democrat or Democratic Left have to make a vital choice at the upcoming local elections.

"The governing party received 25 percent of total votes allowing it to hold 66 percent of the 550-seat Parliament. If this same party maintains this vote capacity and is successful in getting 80 percent of local administrations, it will be hard for our democratic system to overcome its growing imbalance," said Cem.

Quick response came to this call came from former prime minister and Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader Bulent Ecevit. He rebuffed Cem’s call for unity, saying that he would not have divided the DSP before the November elections if he had really wanted cooperation.

Cem was the former foreign minister of the 57th coalition government and a member of the main coalition partner DSP.

Cem and other prominent names from DSP, such as Husamettin Ozkan, resigned from the party after DSP leader Bulent Ecevit fell ill in May 2002 in order to urge him to resign.

They formed the New Turkey Party and ran for Parliament. But the party failed to pass the 10 percent national threshold needed for a political party to enter Parliament.