What Erdogan had said:

"If the central government and local governments do not join hands and stand in solidarity, nothing will come to that city."

What Bahceli had said:

"The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) considers it a necessity to have political, intellectual, and target unity between the central government and local governments in every field for the success of Turkey."

I have been pondering this for days. Then a name comes to my attention: Hasan Kara, who was nominated by MHP as the mayoral candidate for Kilis. Ah, memory! Where do I remember him from?

He is a former member of AKP. He was elected as a deputy from the ruling party twice and once as the mayor of Kilis Municipality. But no, these are not why I remember him. It was another event...

And here the archives come to my rescue.

Year: 2008.

AKP deputy Hasan Kara had a son at that time, around five years old, whose name is not important. May he grow up healthy; a circumcision ceremony was to be held for him.

"A banquet hall?" you say. Shame, would that be fitting for the circumcision of a great deputy's son? Look, I am reporting step by step from the newspapers of the time.

1- A stadium belonging to the Ministry of Youth and Sports was rented for the circumcision ceremony.

2- Gravel was spread on the dirt floor of the stadium by the teams of Kilis Municipality. Not enough, paving stones were also laid down for the entertainment area.

3- The provincial special administration affiliated with the Ministry of Interior also did the landscaping of the stadium.

4- TEDAŞ, under the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, erected huge lighting poles in the middle and around the field.

5- The state, meaning the central government, and the municipality, meaning the local government, worked hand in hand for 20 days for the circumcision ceremony of the AKP deputy's son.

6- The circumcision ceremony, which was attended by approximately 2,000 people, saw the deputy's son arrive at the stadium in a jeep decorated with tulle and yellow-red flowers, accompanied by drums and pipes.

7- The then Minister of Transportation, Binali Yıldırım, also attended the ceremony at the stadium. Greeted with drums, pipes, and the Janissary band, Yıldırım became the godfather of the young boy.

8- And that's not all! The circumcision cake, bearing the AKP logo, was cut by the Governor of Kilis, Nevzat Turhan.

9- Then, a group of imams serving in Kilis read the Mevlid. After the Mevlid, guests, including bureaucrats, leaped to the dance floor with the song "Ağrı Dağı Eteğinde" and began dancing the halay, accompanied by drums and zurnas. Those sitting kept the tempo with applause.

10- A group of 20 people intercepted the journalists and forcibly took the tapes containing footage of the circumcision ceremony.

THE OUTRAGE OF THE MHP MAYOR

But it didn't end there, though I'm tired of writing. All this happened right after the terrorist attack on Aktütün Station by PKK, which resulted in the martyrdom of 15 of our soldiers.

Life is strange...

At that time, İsmail Hakkı Cannacar, the MHP mayor of Yavuzlu town in Kilis, expressed his outrage at this circumcision ceremony. He pointed out that Hasan Kara mobilized all the state's resources for his son's circumcision ceremony: "You're going to do all this without spending a dime from your pocket. With the state's resources, the state's workers, and the power given by the political authority, you're going to make these happen. This should not happen."

But it happened, and how, because this is Turkey. It happened so much that the AKP figure who was criticized by the MHP mayor yesterday was nominated as a mayoral candidate by MHP today.

Without a doubt... If Hasan Kara, now newly affiliated with MHP, is elected mayor in the earthquake region of Kilis, he will surely utilize all the advantages of the desired central-local collaboration. After all, what they have done is a guarantee of what they will do.