He is the clear inclusive candidate: he likes savoury AND sweet things, he is an expert at memorising Yunus Emre and he can pick the perfect mournful theme tune. He leaves the shopkeeper utterly awestruck. We follow him as he saunters down the street alone and into the alarmingly empty shop, where he greets the shopkeeper with every salutation imaginable in the Turkish language.ĭuring their tête-à-tête our hero points out the sky, recites some poetry and buys pastries for his kids.

He has a driver, you see, and he parks in the middle of the road, which shows us he’s a man who’s done good. We join Mr Çelik as he is driven to his a local patisserie. Tick.īut good news! Poetry is back for the 2014 election, for which campaigning has started four months early.Ībdullah Çelik is the council’s head of IT in Istanbul’s Eyüp district, and he wants the governing AK Party’s nomination to be its candidate for mayor. Most Turks remember with a chuckle the Independent Turkey Party leader Haydar Baş’s decision to play on his name: İş, Aş, Haydar Baş (Jobs, Food, Haydar Baş). Other candidates reach for the power rhyme. Candidates for that illustrious office tend to have no campaign funds but lots of moustache for the leaflet (see right). It’s easy to forget the every neighbourhood in the country also has to elect a muhtar, a local representative. Those hoping to become mayor of Istanbul will be pouring millions into their slick operations, but local elections tend to be the liveliest because the sheer range of candidates involved.

Turkish elections always produce some delightfully earnest campaign material.

Babacad 2018 enterprise edition