Let us begin with a very old and very familiar anecdote. The famous poet Yahya Kemal was once asked: “What do you like about Ankara?” His answer: “The return to Istanbul.”
Mansur Yavaş thinks the exact opposite. Wherever he is, he wants to return to Ankara at the first opportunity, and he likes it when everything returns to Ankara. Not out of anxiety to make it to work on time. But because he is a man of the land. Because he is from Ankara.
Ankara is the capital of the Republic—now more than a hundred years old. A capital so firmly entrenched that it is protected by the first four articles of the Constitution, those that “cannot even be proposed for amendment.” Yavaş has been the mayor of this capital for two terms. Before that, he served as mayor of Beypazarı, one of Ankara’s distant outer districts. Located an hour and a half from Ankara, Beypazarı was once known mainly for a biscuit called “Beypazarı kurusu.” Through the work he did there, Yavaş brought Beypazarı recognition and media attention in Ankara and across Turkey. And it was from there that he began his walk.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
Mansur Yavaş was essentially the choice of the CHP’s former chair, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Yavaş comes from an MHP background. Moving from the MHP to the CHP and becoming a mayor is no easy feat. Despite pressure within his own party, Kılıçdaroğlu was clearly taking one of the early steps—later to be formalized as the “Table of Six”—to engage the CHP with wider politics, and he did so through Yavaş.
But what about from Yavaş’s perspective? Especially where we are now. Yavaş has been the mayor of Ankara under the CHP banner for nearly seven years. But is he a “true CHP member”? No. In the party’s own language, there are “pure CHP members” and there are the others—and Yavaş remains firmly in the latter category.
For Mansur Yavaş, this is actually an advantage. It allows him to move with a gaze that rises above the party’s suffocating daily dealings. But it is also, of course, a disadvantage. The reality is that there are far more CHP members than expected who would struggle to accept—and actively seek to block—Yavaş’s potential presidential candidacy. But once he decides on the road and the walk, he will somehow overcome the CHP problem, despite all the noise.
MHP AND DEM
Yavaş is aware of this reality. He has figured out the CHP. After the 2023 elections, he managed to emerge from the party’s chaos with relative ease—precisely because of this difference. If he is now to walk toward a presidential candidacy, there are two voter bases he must keep in view: the MHP and the DEM. That’s life. You cannot script it. A political journey rarely—and often never—unfolds according to one’s wishes. If Yavaş becomes a candidate, no one disputes that, in addition to the CHP voters already in the bag, he would attract a significant number of votes from the MHP. But to reach 50+1, Kurdish votes—namely, the political DEM voters—are absolutely necessary. Taking into account the ongoing peace process, Yavaş has to think about MHP and DEM voters together, without frightening either side. He has no luxury to alienate the DEM electorate. That Yavaş is a politician who speaks little is, in this context, another advantage. Because this is how life and politics work: they place problems before you that must be solved.
ANKARA, ANKARA
Mansur Yavaş is not a surprising politician. There are no sudden twists. That is why, instead of grand promises, he pursues what is realistically possible. Let us also recall the outlook that says, “Whoever it may be, let them at least be genuine.” Let them be human. For instance, many of us know that Yavaş genuinely enjoys smoking hookah. And sometimes, hookah smoke is also the smoke of peace. In any case, let us finish with the lyrics of a beautiful Ankara song:
“Ankara, Ankara, beautiful Ankara.
Everyone down on their luck longs to see you.
All who fall into hardship hope for your help.
You are enough for them, beautiful Ankara.”
