Word: eksioglu
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...officials acknowledge their roots in Islamist parties. But they insist that they have changed, and that they respect Ataturk's separation of mosque and state. Secularist charges of creeping fundamentalism are just a way to scare voters, they say. "It's a witch hunt," says Ali Kemal Eksioglu, 30, an AKP youth leader who has been working to get out the vote in Kadikoy, Istanbul's largest, wealthiest and most traditionally secularist voting district. "I mean, it's 2007, and they are still asking, 'Why is that woman wearing a head scarf?' It's too much." As he sees...
...Swiftly moving from underdog to favorite in just six years, the AKP has become the party to beat. But its rise, supporters say, has bred misunderstanding. The party appeared on the scene in 2001 as a grassroots movement, going door to door to introduce itself to people individually. But Eksioglu's small army of volunteers in Kadikoy has stopped canvassing like this, he says, because the atmosphere has become too tense. That doesn't mean they're no longer active in the neighborhood, however. Indeed, the party recently opened a branch office in Kadikoy - its bright orange-and-blue party...
...Eksioglu himself is an example of how the AKP is drawing from an ever wider pool of supporters. Traditionally, AKP supporters hailed from central Anatolia or the sprawling, working-class suburbs of big cities like Istanbul. But Eksioglu is conspicuously uptown. His family's property-development firm has flourished under AKP rule (it has put up four buildings since 2002, vs. none in the previous political term), thanks to a stable economy and lower interest rates that have made buying homes easier for ordinary residents of Istanbul. He now owns an apartment on Baghdad Avenue, the smartest address...
THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF PLACES TO GO. Entertainment entrepreneurs Levent Buyukugur and Berk Eksioglu, of the Doors Group, compare themselves to the Costes brothers in Paris and are the pioneers behind a swanky all-day diner, a kitchenette, a host of restaurants and the outdoor nightclub and sushi bar Vogue, which has spectacular water views and is named after the one fashion glossy that isn't yet in the Turkish market ("They want to come, but we have the name," says Buyukugur). The pair recently entered into the hotel market with Ajia, a bijoux boutique hotel on the Asian...
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