Ekrem İmamoğlu: "I don't make plans based on losing!"

When Ekrem İmamoğlu first shared his decision to enter politics with Dilek İmamoğlu, he received this response from his wife: "You cannot be a candidate for any party other than the CHP. I will never support you!"

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There are 10 days left until the local elections. Istanbulites are on the verge of eye strain from being exposed to the giant posters of politicians... Squares, streets, overpasses, skyscrapers—everywhere is adorned with billboards of the Metropolitan Municipality mayoral candidates of political parties.

Western tourists stepping into Istanbul for the first time are also quite bewildered by this riot of color.

While crossing to the Anatolian side on the Kadıköy ferry, the conversation between two women, whom I guessed to be British, completely captivated me.

"I feel like I've fallen into the middle of a male beauty pageant," she says to her friend. Her friend asks mischievously, "Which one is more handsome?"

"I'd choose the one without a mustache. There is trust in his eyes," she says. As I listen to them, I go back to 2019. The first interview I conducted with Ekrem İmamoğlu comes to life in my memory. We had met at the Pera Palace. That day was the anniversary of İsmet İnönü's death (December 25). We had set up our cameras in the room reserved for İnönü at the Pera Palace. When his name was announced as the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayoral Candidate, apart from the people of Beylikdüzü, Turkey did not yet know him. It was the first interview he gave to a television channel, 7 days after the date his candidacy was announced on December 18, 2018.

It wasn't his red tie, the CHP badge on his jacket, or his upright posture that impressed me, but his calmness. I was surprised by his very calm, all-embracing style of speaking against the roaring, polarizing language of the government facing him.

-You are different from the politician profile we are used to. You have a government in front of you that will attack you with all its might. Are you ready for the fight to come? I had asked.

"I have never fought in my life. I have never been beaten. I won't fight from now on either, but I won't give them the opportunity to beat me. I am an intelligent person. When you act with the conscience of society, that conscience suffocates the person who wants to fight. It doesn't let them live! No one can stand against that conscience. Just be prepared for it. It is the most valuable philosophy of my life: I believe there is no one whose vote I cannot win with my own belief. I can convince everyone. A person who thinks I haven't convinced them, when they lay their head on the pillow, thinks about how right I am in terms of conscience. Votes are sometimes not taken by hand, but by heart."

DILEK İMAMOĞLU'S PRINCIPLED STANCE!

This is how Ekrem İmamoğlu spoke before the fight that awaited him in the 2019 elections. The election he won on March 31, 2019, was canceled. He won the Istanbul election twice by increasing the vote margin between him and his rival from 13,729 on March 31, 2019, to 806,426 on June 23, 2019.

During his term as Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor, many lawsuits and investigations were opened against him. Each time, İmamoğlu emerged stronger from the fights.

Last week at the rally in Çekmeköy, against a woman who came out with a Quran in her hand and shouted, "The Quran will strike you, you are a liar," İmamoğlu calmed the crowd by saying, "calm, calm." With his body language, he directed attention not to the provocateur, but to himself. This cool-headed attitude and calm power proved to Turkey that he is a leader who has become even stronger after five years sharpened by fights. For this reason, İmamoğlu's rival is not Murat Kurum, but Erdoğan!

Let us remind you once again of Erdoğan's words: "Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey." If İmamoğlu, who won Istanbul twice, wins Istanbul in these elections as well, he will win Turkey for the CHP!

I recently read the book "My Dear Mayor" by our colleague Mine Kılıç, who wrote the life story of İmamoğlu, who says, "I don't make plans based on losing."

The part that caught my attention the most in the book was the sentence Dilek İmamoğlu said to her husband.

İmamoğlu first shares his decision to enter politics with his wife, Dilek İmamoğlu. He knows he cannot move forward on this path without her support. However, his wife is uncomfortable with him not being able to spare enough time for home due to his intense work. Still, she realizes that she cannot turn her husband away from his path. Dilek İmamoğlu says "yes" on one condition: "You cannot be a candidate for any party other than the CHP. I will never support you!"

This is the power of a woman! Let us conclude our article by underlining the principled stance of Dilek İmamoğlu, İmamoğlu's greatest supporter.

With 10 days left until the election, İmamoğlu has pulled far ahead of the People's Alliance candidate with the genuine bond he has established with society and his profile as a leader-mayor. We are entering tense days where provocation will increase. Against all kinds of provocations, İmamoğlu must take his precautions...