Those Who Shattered the CHP’s ‘Glass Ceiling’…

Let me remind you of that political-social, psychological dogma that was thought to be unbreakable; 

‘No matter what the CHP does, it cannot rise above the 25-28 percent band…’

Election defeats eroded the belief in positive future results among the broad voter base and led to ‘learned helplessness’… 

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A significant portion of Republican People's Party (CHP) voters and politicians suffer from ‘glass ceiling syndrome’. 

In other words, an ‘insurmountable level’… 

The highest point that people or institutions believe they can reach is called ‘glass ceiling syndrome’.

This syndrome is like a shackle that a person places on their own will and dreams for something better, higher, and more beautiful.

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However, 

There are politicians who have shattered the CHP’s ‘glass ceiling syndrome’.

We can count them in one breath…; For example, Özlem Çerçioğlu, who won the first election she entered in Adnan Menderes’s hometown by a hair’s breadth—despite being a woman—and then created a wide margin in subsequent elections, etching her name into political history as the ‘heeled efe’ (the heeled hero). 

In Aydın, where the CHP lost power 45 years ago, Özlem Çerçioğlu became the first female mayor.

Çerçioğlu had won the election in 2009 by a margin of 612 votes… With a 26 percent vote share, she had narrowly surpassed the MHP.

For 10 years, she built on her success in every election.  

In the 2019 local elections, Çerçioğlu managed to increase the votes to 54 percent. An increase of over one hundred percent…

How did Özlem Çerçioğlu establish contact with the people of Aydın, who were said to ‘never vote for any party other than the right’, what did she do, and how did she find a response? 

This is a research topic of golden value for those who engage in politics within the CHP, political communicators, and political scientists…

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Özlem Çerçioğlu was 40 years old when she was elected mayor. More followed: female mayors who achieved firsts in their 40s… 

Looking from Istanbul, it might not be visible… But in the middle of conservatism in Anatolia, there are local politicians who are fighting a great struggle to bring cities and the enlightenment of Atatürk to power in these cities.

Let me tell you about Kocaeli… There were no CHP mayors at all. 

In the central district of İzmit, a woman became a candidate… People looked at that woman with ‘impossible’ eyes. 

-One doesn't mention a woman's age, but - Fatma Kaplan Hürriyet was in her 40s… While the CHP’s vote in İzmit was 26 percent in 2018, one year later, Fatma Kaplan Hürriyet received 50 percent of the vote! 

She became the female mayor of conservative İzmit. 

How did she do it? What did she say? What did she do right?

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What about Safranbolu? 

In 2018, the CHP’s vote was 22 percent… In the local elections held one year after the parliamentary elections, Elif Köse received 42 percent of the vote. 

Elif Köse wrote her name into history as the first female mayor of Safranbolu. 

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Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, who dismantled the 25-year Palace reign in Istanbul and Ankara in the last local elections… 

İmamoğlu served as the CHP Beylikdüzü District Chair for one term… 

In the first election he entered, he made the CHP the ruling party in Beylikdüzü, which was held by the AKP, and became the mayor.

He served as a district mayor for one term. He became a candidate in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality election. The winner of the first race in the metropolitan area was again İmamoğlu. (Moreover, he won twice, in defiance of those who stole the ballot box will)

And the secret everyone knows; if he could have been a candidate in the presidential election, there is no doubt he would have defeated Erdoğan in the first presidential election as well…

İmamoğlu has shattered the CHP’s ‘glass ceiling syndrome’ many times over…

How did he do it? What did he do differently? How did he touch the citizens? 

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I was in Manisa last week…

In the hometown of the CHP’s reformist leader Özgür Özel. 

In the local elections held in 2014, the CHP could not win a single municipality out of 18 districts.

Zero out of 18…

In 2019, the mayorships of 4 districts had passed to the opposition.

Akhisar, Alaşehir, Saruhanlı, and Turgutlu… 

In Alaşehir, the CHP won the elections, where it had consistently come in second, for the first time in the history of the Republic. 

In Turgutlu, the CHP was non-existent. 30 years later, Çetin Akın became the CHP’s mayor in Turgutlu. 

Akın is one of the local leaders of the reformist team… He says, ‘We will join hands with our friends and take Manisa, that is, the metropolitan municipality.’ 

Çetin Akın wants to break and overcome the CHP’s glass ceiling in Manisa.

Can he do it? How did he do it in Turgutlu? What did he do right? How did he win? 

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It seems there will be no alliance in the local elections. So why is Özgür Özel hopeful? 

Because the CHP is also full of success stories… 

Özel trusts women, young people, and innovation.  

Candidates in the local elections must work to break the CHP’s glass ceilings…