By Nazlan Ertan
The word of the week is “ayazda kalmak,” literally translated as “being left out in the cold.” This phrase conveys the sting of exclusion, akin to the English “getting the cold shoulder.” It vividly portrays the experience of feeling neglected or overlooked, much like standing outside on a frosty night while others bask in warmth within.
This colloquial idiom recently gained attention following a gathering of the CHP's “Big Three” on Feb. 9. CHP Chair Özgür Özel, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş convened to discuss whether the party should hold primary elections to determine its presidential candidate (Check Deep Dive for more). The photo from the meeting showed the three seated at a table by a fireplace, their notepads open, smiling convivially—your standard political meeting photo. No official statements were made.
Enter Ferhat Murat, a political analyst for Ekol TV, who saw more than just a casual discussion. Armed with a pointer, he directed viewers’ attention to the fireplace, arguing that Yavaş—known to be less enthusiastic about holding primaries—was seated furthest from the warmth, suggesting he was the odd man out, while Özel and İmamoğlu were symbolically “together” by the hearth.
The analysis was widely mocked on social media for its overreach. One user sarcastically remarked, “I've watched many political analyses, but I've never seen one as accurate, timely, scientific, and objective as this,” ridiculing the attempt to extract deep political meaning from seating arrangements. In response, Murat, whose analysis often pinpoints what a great political mind Bahçeli has, defended himself, claiming he had merely expressed in a lighthearted manner what was already known about CHP dynamics—and that the rest of his analysis was, in his words, “sober.”
Yet, Turkish social media had a field day. Users began posting old political photos with similarly exaggerated interpretations. Nurettin Kalkan, a political scientist, shared a black-and-white image from the 1950s featuring Celal Bayar, İsmet İnönü, and Adnan Menderes. “Menderes is sitting furthest from the radiator,” he wrote, “which is why he was hanged [after the 1960 coup].”
From Hearth to Politics
Linguists suggest that “ayazda kalmak” stems from traditional Anatolian village gatherings, where the hearth was the heart of community life. Being excluded from these gatherings was not only a social slight but also a literal experience of being left out in the cold.
The hearth metaphor is powerfully used in Yaşar Kemal’s İnce Memed (Memed, My Hawk in English translation), in which the protagonist experiences societal exclusion, reflecting the hardships of those marginalized by their communities. Similarly, in Oğuz Atay's Tutunamayanlar (The Disconnected), the narrator laments the “unconscious indifference” with which society treats “the colorless, odorless existences” of others, leaving them metaphorically out in the cold.
In political discourse, “ayazda kalmak” often refers to being wrong-footed or caught off guard by allies or opponents. The term was the title of a widely discussed column by Vahap Coşkun in 2022, where he analyzed how Turkey’s ruling AKP and its ally, the MHP, long demonized the pro-Kurdish party of the time, the HDP, making any association with it politically toxic. The opposition, rather than challenging this narrative, largely avoided direct engagement with the HDP. However, when the government unexpectedly opened dialogue with the party, the opposition found itself “left out in the cold”—unprepared and sidelined by the very political maneuvering it had long shunned. A situation worth remembering today.
In short, “ayazda kalmak,” or “being left out in the cold,” is the philosophical opposite of being in the “hot seat.” Which is worse—enduring the cold or facing the fire? In politics, as in life, the answer is never clear.
