There are certain allegations in Turkish politics; they are constantly repeated so that their veracity cannot be debated. The more they are repeated, the more they are taken as truth, those who question them are labeled as \u201coutsiders\u201d and those who object are labeled as \u201ctraitors\u201d. Politics is conducted not with reason but with applause. This new political language of the modern era focuses not on convincing the truth, but on convincing the masses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe claim that \u201d15 million votes were cast for Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu\u201c is a typical political fairy tale of this era. The subsequent claim that \u201dwe collected 25 million signatures\" is a cruder, noisier, more organized version of the same tale.<\/p>\n
There is no verified fact, but there is a persistently constructed narrative, and this narrative is dragging the nomination issue in the CHP into the realm of mythology, not political reason. What is happening today is not a candidate nomination process, but a simulation of legitimacy.<\/p>\n
The \u201c15 million votes\u201d attributed to Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu is not a presidential vote.<\/p>\n
These are the votes:
\n- Without the assurance of the SBE,
\n- Without being legally binding,
\n- Without a rival candidate,
\n- Without clarifying the definition of voters,
\n- Without an oversight mechanism,<\/p>\n
It was used in a process of appeal\/pre-election organized by the CHP, open to non-party voting, the results of which did not produce any constitutional equivalent.<\/p>\n
In some regions, these so-called \u201cvotes\u201d were even higher than the total number of voters in that region, according to internal party data and information from the field.<\/p>\n
I mean:
\n- No ballot box,
\n- There is no voter list,
\n- It is unclear who voted,
\n- But the results are in millions.
\nBeyond political exaggeration, this picture produces statistical impossibility. In political sociology, this is called organizational mobilization, not will. If there are more \u201cvotes\u201d than the number of registered voters in a region, there is not a popular choice, but a centrally constructed number.<\/p>\n
Hence this figure:
\n- It is not the result of an election,
\n- It is not a declaration of popular will,
\n- A candidacy does not produce legitimacy.<\/p>\n
At most, it shows this: CHP organization can mobilize the masses in certain centers with certain reflexes.<\/p>\n
An uncontrolled tendency is presented as the result of a national election; regional inconsistencies, mathematical contradictions, voter surpluses are deliberately covered up. Because the aim is not to tell the truth, but to make it believed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe narrative of \u201d15 million votes\" is not an indication of candidacy, but a political shield of protection.
\nThis narrative is a hastily constructed armor for Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu ahead of possible and upcoming administrative, legal and political processes against IBB. The aim is not to win elections; it is to create a perception of impunity.<\/p>\n
The message is this:
\n\u201cEvery move directed against me will be considered directed against 15 million people.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is not democratic legitimacy; it is a method that has an equivalent in political literature: preventive legitimacy blackmail. It is an attempt to build a barrier between the judiciary and politics with mass numbers, an attempt to make legal processes politically expensive.<\/p>\n
That's why numbers get bigger, processes get faster, criticism is suppressed. Because for armor to be effective, it only needs to look thick; it does not need to be solid.<\/p>\n
In Turkey, presidential candidacy is not only a political but also a constitutional status. This status has indispensable conditions and these are not negotiable.<\/p>\n
In order to become a presidential candidate, it is mandatory to have a higher education degree.
\nThere are serious legal and administrative debates in the public regarding Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu's diploma.<\/p>\n
This is the issue:
\n- It is not a simple polemic,
\n- It is not social media gossip,
\n- It is an objective legal question that directly concerns the capacity to run for office.<\/p>\n
To build legitimacy on \u201c15 million\u201d before the legal validity of the diploma is finalized is to suspend the law and replace the slogan with the law.<\/p>\n
In Turkey, presidential candidacy starts with the following steps:
\n1. Elections are decided (by the Parliament or the SBE)
\n2. The SBE announces the election calendar
\n3. Candidate applications are made within this calendar
\n\ud83d\udccc If there is no election decision
\n\ud83d\udccc If there is no SBE calendar
\n\u2192 There is no legal candidacy<\/p>\n
Today, when none of these conditions exist, it is a deliberate simulation of legitimacy to produce the rhetoric of \u201cthe candidate of 15 million\u201d for a name whose candidacy conditions are disputed.<\/p>\n
This time the narrative of \u201c25 million signatures\u201d was put into play.
\n\u00d6zg\u00fcr \u00d6zel's entrance to the rally area with a truck, the 25 million signatures allegedly collected for Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu and the demand for \u201cearly elections\u201d...<\/p>\n
But the reality on the ground is this:
\n- Provincial and district presidencies,
\n- Under pressure from the headquarters,
\n- Unbeknownst to most of the members,
\n- By writing phone numbers,
\n- By filling out the name lists
\ncreated lists<\/p>\n
Information from the field shows that a large number of these signatures were written without the knowledge of the people named. This is not a signature campaign; it is a political declaration produced by organizational coercion.<\/p>\n
If the CHP is confident, the solution is simple:
\nNotary audit.
\nIndependent professional organizations.
\nTransparent sorting.
\nBut it is not done. Because it is not about verification; it is about producing spectacle.<\/p>\n
Early elections are not possible through petition campaigns, but through an opposition that is effective, coherent and based on the real problems of the people.<\/p>\n
Early elections come not with lists loaded on trucks, but with political pressure on the ground against the cost of living, injustice, unemployment and precariousness. An opposition that spends party energy on Silivri scenarios, personal armor production and defensive reflexes cannot create early elections.<\/p>\n
Early elections are possible not with actors trying to save themselves, but with a political line that is concerned with the people's problems, that comes face to face with the people, that touches the lives of the people. Otherwise, signatures will multiply, slogans will grow, but the political outcome will not change.<\/p>\n
Ekrem Imamoglu:
\n- He is not the candidate of 15 million,
\n- He cannot be a candidate for a process that has not started legally,
\n- The conditions for candidacy are seriously questionable,
\n- It has not been tested at the national level in presidential elections.
\nSaying this is not hostility; it is a demand for political seriousness. If the opposition once again plays politics with myths, suppresses the law with applause, and mistakes armor for reality, it will be left with the same question on the night of the polls:
\n\u201cHow did it happen?\u201d<\/p>\n
Kemal K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu received approximately 26 million votes in the 2023 presidential election. This figure represents the real choice and democratic will of the people. This result concretely demonstrates the party's strength and popular support in the field; it shows that real votes are decisive, not \u201cso-called numbers\u201d such as 25 million signatures or 15 million appeals. K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu's success also clearly proves how detached from the will of the people the nomination debates in the CHP are being conducted.<\/p>\n
The CHP's candidacy has often become a field determined by internal balances, backstage negotiations and \u201cclich\u00e9 success stories\u201d pumped in the media, rather than the people's preference. While 25 million signatures may seem like a huge theoretical support, its real equivalent on the ground, 15 million votes, does not find a concrete response. This gap is an indication of the party's distancing from the real demands of the grassroots and of the confidence-shattering effect of internal political maneuvering.<\/p>\n
The collapse of this fairy tale reveals a truth that has long been suppressed not only by the CHP but also by Turkish politics: Popular support is measured not only by symbolic indicators, but also by actual field performance and the popular response. Otherwise, post-election disappointments and \u201cfailure scenarios\u201d are inevitable.
\nFrom the point of view of political analysis, this is a lesson: Whether 25 million signatures are collected or 15 million votes are targeted, political success cannot be sustainable without building on tangible popular support and trust. The collapse of the CHP's candidacy fairy tale is not just a party mistake, but a serious warning about the \u201cvisual and rhetorical\u201d side of political culture in Turkey.<\/p>\n
Politics is not done with slogans; it is done with truth.
\nNumbers are there to tell the truth, not to replace it.
\n\u201c15 million votes\u201d is not a fact, it is an armor.
\n\u201c25 million signatures\u201d is not data, it is a demonstration.
\nAnd political history has shown time and again:
\nArmor does not win elections. Truth wins.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Politics is not about slogans; it is about truth. Figures are there to tell the truth, not to replace it.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":281260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[286],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-281259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-yazarlar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281261,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281259\/revisions\/281261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}