Gürsel Tekin is the child of a family that migrated to Istanbul immediately after the 1980 military coup that turned Turkey upside down. The family’s roots lie in the province that was then called Kars, now Ardahan—a region where leftist and socialist movements were strong before the coup.
The Tekins settled in Kadıköy, one of Istanbul’s leftist strongholds. Soon after, in his early twenties, Tekin appeared in the ranks of the social democratic parties of the time.
WALKING THROUGH ISTANBUL
As Turkey weathered recurring economic, political, and judicial crises, Tekin advanced within the CHP’s Istanbul branch. He served at every level of the provincial organization and even as a member of Istanbul’s municipal council.
And then the turn came for him to lead the CHP in Istanbul. It was the era of Deniz Baykal in the party. Do not underestimate the Istanbul chairmanship: in every party, and especially in the CHP, Istanbul is the number one organization. Politically, the Istanbul chair is second only to the party chair.
TWO MOVES BY TEKİN
During his tenure as provincial chair, Tekin made two pivotal moves. First, he extended an olive branch to conservative communities long considered the AKP’s backyard. Women wearing the chador, often marginalized for their faith, were welcomed into the party ranks—receiving their badges from Baykal himself.
The second move, however, was the very opposite. He began opening “Republican People’s Houses” in Istanbul districts. Their abbreviation carried a deliberate message to the socialist left: CHE. With this, Tekin was invoking none other than Ernesto Che Guevara—the most iconic figure the global left had ever known.
KILIÇDAROĞLU ENTERS ISTANBUL
When Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu ran for mayor of Istanbul in 2009, Tekin was at his side for the first time. They couldn’t win, but when Kılıçdaroğlu became party chair in 2010, Tekin moved to Ankara as MP and party executive. Their partnership lasted for years before ending in estrangement. Tekin retired from active politics, appearing occasionally on TV as a commentator. He opposed Özgür Özel’s “change” movement but also often underlined his differences with Kılıçdaroğlu.
THE PEOPLE’S BUS
At one point in his journey, Tekin bought a bus and named it “The People’s Bus.” With it, he toured all of Turkey and Istanbul. During the last elections, he drove repeatedly to Kırıkkale—one of the strongest bastions of the right, yet a city where the CHP managed to win the municipality. He brought journalists along on the bus, heading straight to the “retirees’ park” in Kırıkkale. Calling it “the most densely populated city of pensioners in proportion to its population,” he spent the day talking with retirees. Then the bus rolled on. What he loves most are neighborhood markets and chatting with ordinary people.
AND THE COURT INTERVENES IN ISTANBUL
Most recently, Tekin re-emerged when a court dissolved the CHP’s Istanbul provincial branch and appointed him to lead “a court-appointed provisional” administration.
He accepted the assignment, and decided to go to the headquarters. But party management and members resisted. Police were called in as clashes erupted at the office. The current CHP leadership sees him as a threat; Tekin frames his stance as a defense of true CHP identity.
WHERE TO?
So, where is Gürsel Tekin headed? We don’t know. In Turkey, labels such as “traitor,” “betrayal,” and “terrorist” are thrown around so often that they cloud the political landscape like a suffocating fog. Yet one is reminded of Timur Selçuk’s haunting song from the 1970s:
“Where to Payidar, where to?
Yours are all resisting,
Only you are absent among them,
This road leads nowhere.”
Only Gürsel Tekin knows the answer.
