I have many friends from Trabzon; among them are the best industrialists and the most hardworking people of the country. I am not talking about the people of Trabzon.
But when it comes to politics, the picture changes.
I saw a map: Trabzon is the province that has produced the most ministers in Turkey. This is not today, it has been like this for years. It is not a coincidence.
The problem is that politics has ceased to be a field of merit for us and has become a family affair. “those who have nothing else to cling to” has turned into a profession. You know the story of the ‘boy who studied’ in Kayseri, that's exactly what it is.
Look at Turkish politics today: from the government to the opposition, there is a Black Sea activity centered on Trabzon. I always say this:
On election night in the Black Sea region, every house lights up because there is someone from every party in the house - member, candidate or candidate candidate.
This table produces a politics based on interests, not ideology.
It does not create space, it suffocates the new.
And it is not only about power. This is the crisis the Republican People's Party is going through today. This understanding of Black Sea-Trabzon politics that has settled inside the CHP has locked the party.
If the CHP does not carry out a serious bowel cleansing, in other words, a real internal accounting, it will not be able to get rid of this structure and will not be rehabilitated.
This is not racism.
This is an objection to the parceling out of politics by a narrow geographical clique for years.
When politics ceases to be a national issue and turns into a narrow geography's cadre sharing, cliques win and the people lose, not the country.