As the countdown to early or on-schedule elections picks up pace, transfers of lawmakers and mayors are happening at an astonishing pace. Among them, Istanbul MP Nimet Özdemir stands out. Özdemir won her parliamentary seat for the first time in 2023 — under the İYİ Party banner. By 2024, she had joined the CHP, where Özgür Özel pinned on her new badge. This week, it was President Erdoğan doing the honors: Özdemir was joining the AKP.
BUSINESSWOMAN, ENTREPRENEUR, ACTIVIST, ETC.
Before entering active politics, Özdemir described herself as a 'businesswoman and entrepreneur' — she owns tower crane rental and construction materials companies. Having belonged to three parties in three years, her signature political cause has been animal rights. While at the CHP, she cast herself as a champion of animal rights against the ruling AKP. Now that she has joined the ruling party, the question inevitably follows her. There are even reports that President Erdoğan has given her a specific remit on animal rights within the party.
THE GHOST OF TANSU ÇİLLER
Nimet Özdemir is well-educated, urban, secular and, in her own words, a 'Republican woman' with a strong emphasis on Atatürk. Tansu Çiller was Turkey's first — and so far only — female prime minister. Süleyman Demirel, a pillar of the center-right, elevated Çiller to political prominence. Like Özdemir, she too was urban and highly educated. Çiller was a professor of economics before swiftly becoming prime minister. At the time, Demirel was using Çiller to soften his party's image as overwhelmingly male, Anatolian and non-urban. One prominent columnist with a leftist background even wrote a series of articles in one of the country's leading newspapers under the headline 'The Beautiful Blonde Woman.'
Then Çiller disappeared from the political scene. In time, she was all but forgotten, and even the excitement surrounding the prospect of a female politician in the center-right faded away. That is why invoking Çiller when discussing Özdemir matters. It is significant not simply because of the similarities between the two women, but because it reveals how women have historically been positioned within Turkey's right-wing political tradition. The question of women in politics remains one of the country's most critical and unresolved issues.
UNCHANGED VIEWS
While in the CHP, Özdemir joined fellow MPs in hanging a 'Free İmamoğlu' banner. Now, on joining the ruling party, she says: 'I am the same Nimet. My views haven't changed.' The question has to be asked. Is it only the badges that change?
