Pak Sahafat – Erdoğan is examining the situation of 5 of the most important people of the ruling party for the candidacy of the mayor of Istanbul, and two ministers are also seen among them.
According to the report of Pak Sahafat International News Agency, there are less than 10 months left until the municipal elections in Turkey, and Erdogan’s team is considering scenarios based on which they can take back the keys to Istanbul from the opposition.
Erdogan is examining the status of 5 of the most important people of the ruling party for the candidacy of the mayor of Istanbul, and two ministers are also seen among them.
Istanbul is the heart of Turkey’s business, tourism, culture and propaganda, and Erdogan hopes to once again put a member of his party in the mayoral seat and pursue his political, social and economic goals easily.
The city of Constantinople was so important for Sultan Muhammad, the Ottoman king, that after a difficult and long war with the Byzantines, he captured this city and named it Istanbul. But apparently, the conquest of Istanbul is not only important for Sultan Muhammad, and there is no political and party leader in Turkey who does not seek to conquer this city! Because it has long been said in Turkish political circles, whoever can become the mayor of Istanbul will gain control of the entire country. This sentence is also from Erdogan, who said about this city, whoever loses Istanbul will lose the whole of Turkey.
Throughout the political life of the Justice and Development Party, the post of mayor of Istanbul was in the hands of the Justice and Development Party, but since the control of the city fell to Akram Imamoglu, a candidate supported by the secularists and Kemalists, in the 2019 elections, Erdogan has been quiet. Turkish political observers believe that Imamoglu has gained so much popularity in Istanbul that if instead of Kılıçdaroğlu, he became Erdogan’s rival, he would have won decisively.
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One of the bitterest memories of Erdogan was the defeat of Ben Ali Yildirim, one of the founders of the Justice and Development Party and one of the closest practitioners and technocrats of the government. Erdoğan thought that Yıldırım was able to win the hearts of the people in the post of prime minister and that he could defeat his young and unknown opponent Akram Imamoğlu with high votes.
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But this miscalculation failed and Yildirim failed. This defeat was so far from Erdoğan’s mind that he ordered to hold the elections once again! But to the utter disbelief, in the re-election, Imamoglu got more votes.
From the day that Imamoglu became the mayor, he has not allowed the good water to go down the throat of Erdogan and the ruling party, nor has the government allowed Mr. Mayor to do his job.
Erdoğan’s strange and dramatic megaproject called the Istanbul Pass, which sought to create a new waterway from the Black Sea to Marmara and the Aegean, failed and was abandoned due to Imamoglu’s opposition. On the other hand, teams of security officers and journalists are always following the mayor to catch his wrist and provide grounds for his imprisonment. But this cat and mouse game continues and now Imamoglu has announced that he wants to run for next year as well.
According to Imamoglu’s words, Cumhuriyet newspaper announced that he has a clear plan and strategy for next year’s elections and will not leave the stage.
Zafar Shahin, one of the analysts close to the Turkish presidential establishment, wrote in the Mellit newspaper: Erdogan announced in a meeting with his group of advisers that they should not leave the work of Istanbul to chance and risky competition and choose a candidate whose victory is guaranteed.
5 characters whose names were announced by Zafar Shahin are:
- Fakhreddin Koja, Minister of Health.
- Murad Korum, former Minister of Housing and Urban Development.
- Tofiq Gokso, one of the mayors of Istanbul province.
- Helmi Turkman, one of the mayors of Istanbul province.
- Shadi Yaziji, one of the mayors of Istanbul province.
Interestingly, Erdoğan wants to use people in Istanbul elections who are important stars of his team and party. Fakhreddin Koja, the Minister of Health, gained such popularity during the fight against Corona that he was even mentioned as an important candidate for the presidential election, and Murad Kurum had a brilliant record during the fight against the earthquake and also in the post of the minister.
The 3 municipalities that were mentioned are all famous and important and experienced people of the party who have been supported by Erdogan’s supporters for a long time in subordinate municipalities in Istanbul.
While Erdoğan’s team is working to find a guaranteed winner in the Istanbul elections, the camp of his opponents, at least in the current situation, is not in a good situation and there is no news of unity and cohesion.
But it is said that Imamoglu is exactly the candidate who can gather everyone under one roof again in the heat of competition. That too, in the situation that if he is re-elected as mayor, he can defeat any member of the Justice and Development Party and become the president in 2028. It remains to be seen whether Erdogan’s team of legal advisors will find a way to ban Imamoglu’s political activity and send him home, or try to defeat him with propaganda superiority, in order to fully guarantee victory in the elections.