{"id":36389,"date":"2019-03-20T07:23:04","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T07:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=36389"},"modified":"2019-03-20T07:23:04","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T07:23:04","slug":"us-accuses-iran-of-destabilizing-mideast-with-missile-program-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=36389","title":{"rendered":"US accuses Iran of destabilizing Mideast with missile program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nISTANBUL: In a decade and a half in power, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has often turned to oratory skills that are the envy of his foes to rouse supporters with speeches, poems and stories.
Now the Turkish leader is picking up the microphone to sing, complete with hand gestures, to rally supporters of his ruling AKP party for March 31 local elections.
Music has always been a powerful tool in Turkish politics, but with Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), it has now become one more way to galvanize his support base before a potentially tricky vote.
With Turkey in recession and inflation in double digits, the AKP is turning up the nationalist rhetoric to try to win over voters hurt by high living costs.
\u201cI get goose bumps when I listen to the songs everyday,\u201d said Ilknur Can, at an Erdogan rally in Istanbul\u2019s Kasimpasa district, where the president grew up.
\u201cI really understand, through this music, what patriotism is,\u201d she added.
Erdogan\u2019s critics say he has eroded rights by cracking down on dissent at home.
But for supporters, his electoral style taps into their image of Erdogan as the strong leader Turkey needs who speaks for them.
In this month\u2019s municipal elections, the AKP will likely remain the largest party even if some experts say it could win by a smaller percentage of the vote.<\/p>\n

Music is everywhere in Turkey, blaring out in taxis, shops and restaurants. Political events also have regular, and often extremely loud music.
The Turkish leader has deployed theme songs played on speakers at rallies in past elections, which have kept him in power since 2003.
But in the upcoming polls, it is Erdogan himself who is singing at almost every rally.
\u201cNereden nereye geldi Turkiye\u201d (\u201cFrom where Turkey came to where we are now\u201c) Erdogan crooned from the stage at a recent event.
The song repeats a line from his election campaign tune about how far Turkey has developed under his rule.
\u201cHe already has an organic connection with his grassroots, but these songs are a new strategy to widen support,\u201d associate professor Dogan Gurpinar, of Istanbul Technical University, said.
Political events have also been the subject of songs.
After a failed 2016 coup against Erdogan, one song had the lyrics: \u201cDemocracy took a blow and the nation was puzzled… the commander-in-chief gave the order: Take to the squares.\u201d
That was a reference to Erdogan\u2019s call during the coup attempt for loyalists to take to the streets.
Another song entitled \u201cDombra\u201d chants the president\u2019s name, drawing cheers from party faithful.
\u201cI am over the moon whenever I listen to Nereden Nereye,\u201d said supporter Ayse Duru, as she sang along to Erdogan\u2019s recent campaign song.<\/p>\n

The composer of Erdogan\u2019s latest campaign tune and performer of it when the president himself isn\u2019t singing it is Turkish pop singer Altan Cetin.
\u201cIt was not hard for me to write (the AKP song) and put it into a project. Believe me, it can sometimes be even more difficult to do a pop song,\u201d he told AFP in his studio in Istanbul.
Cetin said that it took almost a month to finish.
\u201cOur president uses every instrument of politics very successfully and very professionally,\u201d he said.
In Europe, it is rare for a candidate to sing at election rallies.
But in the United States, former president Barack Obama sometimes sang on the campaign trail, and in 1992, Bill Clinton famously played the saxophone before an audience \u2014 helping to cement his popularity with young voters.
Late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez also often broke into song at rallies and speeches, rousing supporters with the national anthem or folksongs.
Cetin said that music was \u201clike a glue\u201d for people that \u201cbrings them closer.\u201d
\u201cMusic is about synchronization. It creates a sincerity, a unity and a power with everyone who feels it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cetin said that he wrote what he had \u201clived through\u201d in Turkey, saying he was happy to see the country\u2019s leader singing his music.
\u201cA president accompanying a song with a microphone in his hand in a rally is a source of pride for the song\u2019s composer,\u201d he said.
Gurpinar, of the Istanbul Technical University, said that music was the most direct way to reach people.
\u201cTurkey is a country that looks for tools to reach out to the masses more easily compared to other Western states,\u201d he said.
Compared to the AKP, the opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) often struggles to establish similar bonds with its old school, left-leaning, protest song repertoire, Gurpinar said.
However the CHP is now also trying to attract more voters with modern songs \u2014 one is a rap tune by two young amateur musicians.
\u201cIt can have power only when the music and candidate merge,\u201d CHP\u2019s Istanbul candidate Ekrem Imamoglu told AFP when asked about music\u2019s role.
But he said that positive expressions like music should replace heated rhetoric.
\u201cI wish we would see and feel such nice things in politics,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are happy with our songs. Honestly, I didn\u2019t listen to the others.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL: In a decade and a half in power, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has often turned to oratory skills that are the envy of his foes to rouse supporters with speeches, poems and stories.Now the Turkish leader is picking up the microphone to sing, complete with hand gestures, to rally supporters of his ruling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}