Local Elections

You would have to be living under a rock to have missed the fact that Turkey just had local elections on March 29. For the past 3 weeks, flags and signs for all of the different parties have been everywhere. In some neighborhoods where the race was going to be very close, like in Uskudar (right) there were so many flags strung across the streets that they seemed to create this mile-long canopy. I also noticed in the last two months that public building projects, like the extension of the subway to Beshiktash, have kicked into high gear, I suppose because politicians are eager to prove that they are actually getting stuff done in their communities. Although these elections are for local government, they were nation-wide and seemed to be  important as politicians at the local level can end up being quite powerful. My roommate Cat was beside herself right before the elections because a major part of her research here is how political parties pander to minorities or internal migrants in Istanbul; so this was a really important time for her. I tend to not pay a lot of attention to politics here; rather, I tend to walk around with my head in the clouds looking at 500-year-old buildings all day. But even I couldn't avoid the excitement of election fever. I found myself in the last weeks before the election talking to Turks about local politics, and, most importantly, which party they were supporting. 

Turkey is not on a two-party system; and I have found that trying to classify the parties here with American terms like "liberal," "conservative," and "moderate" to be almost useless because the political divisions here can be very confusing, at least for me. But I will try my best. AKP, or Ak Parti, is the majority party at the moment. It is supposed to be fairly moderate, but its critics think that it is too sympathetic to Islamic issues. The other major parties are CHP (Ataturk's party, nationalist, favorite of the westernized and wealthy), MHP (super nationalist), DSP (tree-hugging liberals, apparently), Saadet (pretty Islamist, but not allowed to say so), and DTP (Kurdish national party, critics say it is political extension of PKK, the Kurdish terrorist group). All of the parties were campaigning hard with flags, posters, speeches, and tv spots. One of the most dramatic events of the campaigning was when Erdogan, head of AKP and Prime Minister, went to give a speech in Izmir, which is traditionally the most liberal city in Turkey and a CHP hot-bed. So he basically went into the lion's den. My favorite form of campaigning is what I call the "party bus." Party buses are basically minivans that party supporters drive in around the neighborhoods, shouting slogans and playing party songs (like football teams in Turkey, all political parties seem to have a boppy theme song). In Istanbul, these party buses took the form of new vans plastered with the faces of their candidates, with huge speakers bolted to the top, and in more rural areas in the east, I saw people basically outfitting their old Volvo with some flags and a guy hanging out the passenger side window with a megaphone. Whatever works I guess. The party buses are really hilarious but can be kind of annoying. The week before elections I would wake up to the DSP theme song pulsating throughout my neighborhood. 
During my travels out east, checking out the campaigns was really interesting. Most people would expect that in eastern Anatolia, the more conservative parties would be more strong and the more "liberal" parties like CHP and DSP would have no presence at all. In Erzurum, I did notice that MHP, one of the more conservative parties, definitely had the upper hand, but when I went to Kars, which is about as far east as you can get, I was surprised to find almost all of the political parties present. To the left, you can see a picture of some flags I took on the street in cars. From top to bottom, there are ads for CHP, AKP, and MHP. I wasn't expecting Kars to have a more balanced political field than Erzurum, because it is poorer, smaller, and further east. Shows how much I know!

One of the really interesting things about elections in Turkey is that there is a law that prohibits any campaigning or even DISCUSSION of politics during the actual voting period, starting the evening before until the tabulation. And they are serious about it. The night before the election, I noticed city workers going around with large tree limb cutters, cutting down every single flag so they would not be flying the next morning. I really wanted a DSP flag, because its symbol is the white dove and I thought it was really pretty. That night I walked up to a police officer standing next to a pile of flags on the sidewalk. I asked him if I could take one. Hey eyed me for a second, "Do you really want a DSP flag? Don't you want an AKP flag instead?" I assured him that I wanted a DSP flag becuase of the "pretty bird" on it. He figured this was a reasonable decision and told me to go for it. All of the flags were connected together and I had a tough time separating the one I wanted. I asked the police officer if he had a knife. He told me no and I chastised him for being a police officer and not having some sort of cutting instrument on him. He thought for a second and produced his lighter, burning through the rope so I could get my flag. I marched away with my prize, the cop shaking his head.