We know, those who are nowadays saying “Everything will be beautiful!” (the most popular slogan of CHP, the left-leaning main opposition party in Turkey-TN) are the ones expecting Ekrem İmamoğlu, the candidate of the opposition, to win the election in Istanbul.
Does this slogan also imply the ‘hope’ for power change if the CHP’s candidate wins the election by landslide?
Probably, the slogan, “Everything will be beautiful!” paves the way for such an expectation, too. . .
These days, supporters of CHP are living in hope of this.
I am sure that their hopes increase further when they repeatedly hear the slogan from famous artists, business people, football fans in stadiums and some individuals with administrative posts in their favorite football clubs.
Hope is a good thing for everyone.
Hope is good for breakfast, but…
I had attended in a workshop of a famous columnist when I was a student many years ago. On the first day, I and others wishing to be participants had gathered and been waiting for the lesson to start off. The columnist wanted all of us to write a short essay on a particular subject, telling that he would read our papers, and initiate his workshop with ones who accomplished the task successfully.
The subject of the writing was a statement of the British philosopher Francis Bacon (died in 1626): “Hope is good for breakfast, but it is bad for supper.”
That was over a half century, but I have never forgotten that statement, and always believed it was true.
High hopes lead to deeper disappointments if one miscalculates things and make poor plans.
CHP is the hopeful camp today.
As for AKP (the Justice and Development Party)…
Istanbul is going to go to the re-run soon, and residents of the city will elect their mayor. However, as far as I can see, what publicly stated on behalf of AKP add a flavor of general elections. Everyone talks loudly. Different voices are attempted to be silenced, those who insist on speaking out are slandered.
It does surprise me that Binali Yıldırım, the candidate of AKP stands in the forefront in this dismissive attitude (Mr. Yıldırım would like to win the election -or not?)
While responding to questions, the AKP candidate instead of giving reasonable explanations, makes people who dare to ask him regret deeply for having raised a tricky question,
But that is not all. Party officials or individuals from the party bureaucracy, supposed to deal with the confusion in the minds of many AKP voters because of the decision of the Supreme Electoral Council that is in dire contrast with conventions, appear to have adopted a reproving voice instead of a decent explanatory stand.
People spreading the slogan, “Everything will be beautiful” are threatened by the same party officials with blacklisting them. Their artistic identities are questioned, and they are accused of ‘treason’ by the same officials…
What leads supporters of the government to acting in this way? Is it because of their confidence in winning the upcoming election, or is it a reflection of their uneasiness about uncertainty of victory hidden behind the seeming confidence?
Almost out of the blue, a journalist got beaten by some thugs
As if imprisoned journalists are not bad enough, now we have a journalist beaten severely by baseball bats.
Füsun Üstel, a female professor who had contributed to scholarly activities of AKP in the years after its inception, has just been sent to prison to serve time because she signed a manifesto prepared by her peers…
My age allows me to remember 1970s. I recall a similar political environment that had caused the ruling party to get into trouble, and confusion in minds of voters had benefited the opposition.
CHP too had won elections in Istanbul, twice
The main opposition party won the municipal election in Istanbul twice: in 1973 and in 1989. . .
In 1989, the given political environment of the time paved the way for Nurettin Sözen from SHP (the Social Democratic Populist Party) to become the mayor of Istanbul, and this is known by many people. In 1973 too, however, Ahmet İsvan, the candidate of CHP had won the Istanbul metropolitan municipality election with a high percentage of 63.6, but hardly anyone remembers and reminds this.
Even supporters of CHP seem to have forgotten that someone from their own party had ruled Istanbul for years. They only remember Nurettin Sözen as the mayor of Istanbul from their ilk. . .
Ahmet İsvan published his memoirs in a book titled ‘Başkent Gölgesinde Istanbul’ (“Istanbul under the Shadow of the Capital City) where he also talked about the process that brought him to the mayorship of Istanbul.
CHP nominated a Robert College graduate farmer with an agricultural engineering degree in the USA (a classmate of the party leader, Bülent Ecevit) to the head of the Istanbul metropolitan municipality, and won the election.
Groups of artists and young people had voluntarily contributed to the election campaign of İsvan, and this had a significant role in his election victory, winning more than double of the votes of his opponent, Fahri Atabey from Adalet Partisi (the Justice Party -a conservative party TN). . .
History repeats itself in our country, and, as the poet Mehmet Akif sagely stated once, this is because of the unwillingness for learning from past experiences.
Yes, we lack the ability to learn from our own past experiences.
People are forgetful in all lands, but, it seems that our forgetfulness is at the highest level.
We are heading to the election day by day, and there are now only five weeks left.
ΩΩΩΩ
[This is the translation of the article published on May 12, 2019 by Bernar Kutluğ]
