We are stuck between Ekrem and Mansur...

The country is practically on fire; my fellow citizens are struggling with hunger and poverty; yet the CHP has abandoned the country's burning real agenda and is preoccupied with determining its candidate for an election whose timing and method remain uncertain.

The Party Assembly decided to hold a primary election and authorized the Central Executive Committee regarding the calendar and method. Özgür Özel also announced the primary election date as March 23.

If we didn't know their true colors, we might assume a festival of democracy awaits us.

For heaven's sake, let's dismiss all of that in one stroke... 

Whether they hold a primary, draw straws, consult a fortune teller, or flip a coin,  or ask Dinçer Güner; it makes no difference at all.

Tayyip is playing with them just like a cat plays with its tail.

No matter what anyone says, he will be the one to determine the candidate who will run against him.

If CHP members continue with this mindset, Tayyip will once again win the election by beating his opponent in a way that no one can question. 

They think the primary is all fun and games, but by the time they realize how they have been set up, it will be too late.

Özgür Özel shouts and gets worked up every time he gets his hands on a microphone here and there. In reality, he is, quite literally, an ineffective figure.

Let's be frank: right now, it is Ekrem who calls the shots in the CHP.

Because he is preoccupied with trying to escape the investigations hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles, he does not want to leave anything to chance.

He believes that once his candidacy is officially confirmed without any hitches, he will gain immunity against the ruling power—not realizing that this is a major mistake—and he calculates that if circumstances turn unfavorable for him, the CHP and its members will stand behind him.

In other words: the ruling power wouldn't dare throw me in jail!

That is why he keeps pushing as hard as he can.

But he is making a mistake. 

For the court to rule against him, and for the police to subsequently come, remove him from his office, and take him to Silivri, it only takes a slight twitch of Tayyip's eyebrow.

He appears to be ahead in the polls,  but he is gradually losing trust in the other neighborhood.

Mansur, on the other hand, is the 'heavyweight'...

As long as he doesn't speak, there is no problem, but when it comes to making a couple of lines of explanation, the probability of him messing it up is very high.

He has constantly gained credit because he hasn't taken the microphone into his hands very often until today.

But he needs to speak in order to lead the masses behind him.

He cannot be unaware that the path to leadership in a country like Turkey requires magnificent oratorical skills. 

If he is unaware, it is high time someone told him.

He became the Mayor of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality with the votes of CHP members, but he has constantly kept his distance from the CHP and its voters.

He thought that if they sidelined Ekrem, the field would be left to him anyway, but his calculations at home did not match the reality of the marketplace.

Whether he wanted a primary or not, he has had to settle for the bench for now.

While people were fighting tooth and nail against the government, Mansur chose to stay out of the fray, relying on a few polls, keeping himself on the sidelines, and thinking that if he could just manage until the election without taking too much damage, the rest would be easy.

Even if he tries to become a candidate now, that ship has effectively sailed.

It is certain that Ekrem will emerge from the primary.

We will all see what happens next together.

The great CHP, with its roots in the Association for the Defense of Rights, which won the War of Independence, carried out revolutions, saved the people of this country from being subjects, and has its signature on every step taken for the development of this nation, could only find two candidates: one who is not even a CHP member, and the other whose CHP membership is debatable.

As for us, we have set aside what we should have been discussing while the candidates were being determined, and no matter how we look at it, we are stuck between Ekrem and Mansur.

Among them;

Is there anyone who pledges to return this country to its founding principles, to implement secularism without compromise, to rescue the education system from a medieval mentality, and to cleanse the Turkish Armed Forces of cultists and sectarians?

Is there anyone who pledges to hold the 'gang of five,' those who have stripped the people bare, and anyone else dragging us into medieval darkness, accountable? 

Is there anyone who pledges to establish a social order that will allow retirees and laborers to live like human beings, and to work day and night to elevate Turkey above the level of contemporary civilization?

For instance, will they be able to proudly say 'Turkish citizen' instead of 'person from Turkey'? 

Will they send the refugees back immediately?

Will they be able to put an end to the waste and plunder in the state?

Will they be able to stand against the extensions of imperialism in Turkey and protect the unity and integrity of the country?

In short, will they be able to abandon the rhetoric of religion, faith, God, and scripture, and truly embrace the Republic?

As for the rest, it does not interest me at all.

I will not cast my vote for the candidate who is 'likely to win' as some are pushing us to do, but rather for the one who stands before my fellow citizens with these principles and says, 'I am a candidate to govern the Republic of Turkey.'