Nasuh Mahruki announces his independent candidacy

Nasuh Mahruki, who was a mayoral hopeful for the CHP in Beşiktaş but was not nominated, has announced that he will participate in the elections as an independent candidate.

Announcing his candidacy on social media, Mahruki stated, "Due to a legal requirement, I am regretfully forced to resign from the Republican People's Party (CHP) in order to continue as an independent candidate." Mahruki added, "As a Beşiktaş resident, I have decided to become an independent candidate for the Beşiktaş Mayoralty with the awareness of being a responsible citizen and with the strength and confidence I receive from you, in order to address all these concerns of Beşiktaş residents regarding Beşiktaş, to prepare a brand new and contemporary Beşiktaş together, and to ensure that we can look to the future with confidence again."

Nasuh Mahruki, one of the founders of the Search and Rescue Association (AKUT), had been a mayoral hopeful for the Republican People's Party in the Beşiktaş district. However, the CHP's Beşiktaş candidate for the local elections was announced as the incumbent mayor, Rıza Akpolat.

Mahruki's statement regarding his candidacy is as follows:

"Dear Beşiktaş residents, those who have heart for the Republican People's Party, and our dear citizens, I am a combative citizen who follows in the footsteps of the Great Savior and Great Founder, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who feels responsible for the eternal existence of the Republic of Turkey, and who sees this burden of responsibility as heavier than death.

I am a Kemalist, a libertarian, an egalitarian, and a secularist. I am a defender of a rights-based life, and I am one of those who believe that the State of Turkey, which is a secular, democratic, and social state of law, is an indivisible whole with its country and nation.

As a citizen residing in Beşiktaş, where my grandfather, my father, and my children live, and where my grandchildren will also live, I had decided to enter politics in the upcoming local elections with the awareness of taking ownership of the place where I live, which I unfortunately see is not being managed well, and in order to use my experience in disaster management for my people and to set an example regarding earthquake preparations, which are unfortunately not being addressed with seriousness despite being urgent and a priority.

I had become a mayoral candidate hopeful with the desire to be a breath of fresh air to break the predatory, plunderous, and robbing blockade that does not recognize law, human rights, and specifically women's rights, as well as nature and animal protection laws, and which is completely far from a rights-based life, which Turkey has been experiencing for the last 22 years, and with the desire to make concrete contributions to our district where I was born and raised, our beloved Beşiktaş.

Naturally, I had become a mayoral candidate hopeful from our founding party, the Republican People's Party, which has adopted as its motto the Republicanism, Nationalism, Populism, Statism, Secularism, and Revolutionism of Atatürk, which I also adopt and defend as my guide.

Like you, I am an unwavering defender of the founding principles of our Republic and the 100-year-old Republican People's Party. The Republican People's Party recently announced its mayoral candidate for our Beşiktaş district, where 8 candidates were competing. First of all, I wish for the party administration's choice to be beneficial for our Beşiktaş district.

However, I see and hear from countless Beşiktaş fellow citizens and neighbors that the candidate determination made by the Republican People's Party administration for Beşiktaş without a primary election has not been a decision that reflects the preference and desire of our people.

During the various election-oriented studies I conducted over the past 2 months, I saw in the eyes of almost all the Beşiktaş residents I spoke with and met how sincerely a real populist change is desired, as was stated at the Party Congress. I personally observed how tired, fed up, and weary they are of not being able to find solutions to their problems, not being able to get rid of their anxieties, and losing their hopes, and that they personally observe, expect, and long for a mayor who is from Beşiktaş.

The fact that no primary election or tendency poll was held despite being promised at the Congress, that the results of the polls conducted were not shared with the voters openly and transparently, and that a significant portion of the selected mayoral candidates make the vast majority of voters unhappy is an important issue that needs to be reflected upon for the sake of our country and our future.

Dear Beşiktaş residents,

First of all, I would like to thank my colleagues who were with me with great internal motivation by taking it upon themselves during my candidacy process, the valuable friends who supported me, our volunteers, and of course my only family, and all our citizens, whether they are from Beşiktaş or not, who showed me favor and expressed their support in every way in our district.

Beyond the close interest, support, and sincerity I have seen in this short process, I also had the opportunity to learn about your deep concerns regarding our district, Istanbul, and Turkey. I felt your deep anxieties and the distrust towards the future and politics. I witnessed your helpless waiting against the earthquake disaster. I saw with my own eyes the wounds opened and the inequality created by the rent struggle in our district, and I have experienced and am experiencing it personally.

As a Beşiktaş resident, I have decided to become an independent candidate for the Beşiktaş Mayoralty with the awareness of being a responsible citizen and with the strength and confidence I receive from you, in order to address all these concerns of Beşiktaş residents regarding Beşiktaş, to prepare a brand new and contemporary Beşiktaş together, and to ensure that we can look to the future with confidence again.

I made this decision for the valuable people of Beşiktaş, from whom I emerged, to manage Beşiktaş with a transparent administration, with courage, with an exemplary municipal understanding, and to continue our rightful and correct struggle. Because I see, hear, read, and know that the people of Beşiktaş want this, expect this, and desire this very much. We are here to manage Beşiktaş with Beşiktaş residents, together with direct democracy methods and civil initiatives, based on solidarity municipalism for our streets, our homes, our elderly, our youth, our children, our nature, our green spaces, our sea, and our living creatures. We are setting out not to be a mayor, but for role-model municipalism together with you. You will see that the change that will form the nucleus of the beautiful days to come will start from Beşiktaş. We will start it.

Due to a legal requirement, I am regretfully forced to resign from the Republican People's Party in order to continue as an independent candidate. However, this separation is a necessary temporary process, and when my independent candidacy process ends, I naturally desire to return to my party, which is the party of the SIX ARROWS principles.

As a Beşiktaş resident born and raised who loves Beşiktaş very much, I am an independent district mayoral candidate in the local elections to be held on March 31, 2024, to solve all the problems of our distinguished Beşiktaş together with common sense and science with the contributions of our neighbors.

With your sincere interest, strong support, and the preference you have shown in various channels, we are setting out again and much more strongly to create Beşiktaş's Beşiktaş together with Ataturkist and social democratic values.

Dear Beşiktaş residents,

In this democratic struggle, I am a candidate for your votes in Beşiktaş in the local elections as an independent candidate. As for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, like all Republican People's Party members, I will cast my vote for Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu and I will work for him to win the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality again.

Dear Beşiktaş residents, this will not be easy at all. I look forward to your support so that I can become the Independent Mayor of Beşiktaş in the local elections on March 31, 2024, and I wish for you to be by our side in this sacred and difficult struggle. I love you all very much and I am starting this selfless but very rightful democratic struggle for all of us. I embrace you all with my love and respect."

News Source: 12punto