What is an ambulance for? What role does it play in our lives? An ambulance is a vehicle to transfer patients and the injured between hospitals. It also carries a team and equipment capable of providing urgent medical care. Because of the critical condition of those it transports, it moves through traffic with its sirens blaring.
Very well, and who is Mahmut Tanal? What role does he play in our lives? And what does he have to do with an ambulance? Tanal is an MP from the CHP. A lawyer.
Mahmut Tanal is the first to raise his voice against nearly all of the human rights violations that have become too frequent to keep up with. In a way, these cries are his sirens.
Most recently, Tanal pitched a tent in the rain in front of the Ministry of Justice and held an overnight vigil for university students detained during protests against operations targeting the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. The police removed the tent. But he continued his vigil in the rain—and read the books he brought with him until morning.
DISCOVERING TANAL
For those who know Tanal, there is nothing unusual about his protest. In fact, you could call it a “classic Mahmut Tanal move.”
He defines himself as a “human rights activist.”
Indeed, wherever there’s a human rights violation, you will almost certainly find Tanal there—and it has been that way for years. He once climbed atop a riot control vehicle (TOMA) to stop the police from intervening a LGBT a protest. When he suspected villagers resisting environmental destruction were being recorded by the authorities, it was Tanal who chased the gendarmerie away. His leg has even been broken during the hearings for mass political trials. He was also at the forefront of protests following İmamoğlu’s arrest. That’s why he garners so much attention from young people. About this interest, Tanal says: “I’ve been an MP for five terms, always on the same line. The youth just discovered me. That might explain the attention.”
THE PROTECTOR
He doesn’t just stand up for the youth, environmentalists, villagers, or those seeking justice—he also played a leading role in protecting votes during elections. His best-known act, etched in the public memory, came after the 2019 local elections. When the Istanbul vote was annulled and a recount was ordered, it was none other than Tanal who lay on top of sacks of votes to keep them from being tampered with.
Except when he’s asleep, his phone is always on—and he answers. He can’t sit still in parliament either. Whether it’s through a speech or a symbolic gesture, he always makes striking headlines. He’s not a theorist; he’s a street politician. Whether he is at his constituency or anywhere else, there is always a unique presence of Mahmut Tanal. He’s like a lifelong friend to shopkeepers, farmers, retirees—to all segments of society. Now, he has focused all his attention on sounding the sirens for the widespread and continuing human rights violations.
