A mind fixated on leggings...

There are so many issues in this country!

Inflation, the high cost of living...

The markets and bazaars are on fire...

Vegetables and fruits are burning a hole in our pockets.

Who has the money to buy ground meat, cubed meat, lamb chops, or tenderloin?

We are getting poorer with each passing day.

The people of my country have lost their sense of pricing; there isn't a day when labels don't change.

What is expensive, what is cheap—we've lost track of it all.

Agriculture is on the verge of collapse, the wheels of industry are about to grind to a halt...

Production is almost at zero.

The market is running on buy-and-sell speculation.

We don't know how much longer that can last!

The state of retirees is dire; they cannot make ends meet. The vast majority of my fellow citizens are living at the hunger threshold.

While a rampant minority, enriched by the blessings of those in power, lives it up, young people are filled with anxiety about the future and are looking for opportunities to flee abroad.

Social balances are deteriorating, leading to social disintegration and decay...

The country is a disaster zone from top to bottom...

Wars continue beyond our borders; America's reckless President is spreading terror across the world.

We are on the brink of a new and extremely uncertain era; let's just say we are living in a dystopia.

While all this is happening, a member of parliament from the country's main opposition party, as if he had nothing better to do, went and turned the leggings a governor wore while exercising over the weekend into a national issue.

This is not a joke, and it is certainly not a Zaytung news story.

It was one of the most-read news items on the agenda last week!

When images of Ardahan Governor Mehmet Fatih Çiçekli, known for his athletic identity, were shared on social media while he was cycling, all hell broke loose!

The debate was carried all the way to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM); CHP's Kars MP İnan Akgün Alp took the podium and lashed out at Governor Çiçekli. Showing a photo of the governor, he said, "Four bodyguards in front and behind him. He is walking around among the citizens in leggings. A governor cannot be like this. I am calling out to the Minister of Interior; either remove these governors or send them a grape leaf."

Actually, he meant a fig leaf, but let's not get hung up on that and attribute it to his ignorance, and continue.

Perhaps unable to contain himself, he shared a video on his social media account titled "TikTok governors have emerged" and continued his criticisms.

The honorable MP was not bothered by police entering the CHP headquarters, but for some reason, he got fixated on a governor's leggings.

As the intensity of the debate increased, President Tayyip Erdoğan intervened and removed Governor Mehmet Fatih Çiçekli from his post.

Now, one really cannot help but ask:

Do you have absolutely no work left to do?

Are we going to dedicate the state's energy, the bureaucracy's time, and the public's agenda to a governor's attire?

Moreover, the person doing this is not an ordinary citizen.

He is a CHP MP from Kars...

A representative of a political understanding that has advocated for years for freedoms, individual choices, and non-interference in lifestyles.

He didn't eat or drink; he brought the leggings the governor wore while exercising to the agenda and complained about them.

The irony of the situation lies right here.

It shows the tragicomic point we have reached when those who have criticized the conservative wing for years by saying "you interfere with people's clothing" now attempt to generate politics over a public official's sportswear.

Yet, yesterday they were saying "you cannot interfere with anyone's clothing," and today they see no harm in making a governor's leggings an issue.

It seems "principle" was just talk; what matters is the person being targeted.

Let's pause here.

Because the real thing that needs to be discussed is something entirely different.

For example, what has that Governor contributed to Ardahan?

What services has he stood out for during his tenure?

Investments, tourism efforts, social projects, the effort he showed for the promotion of the city...

These should be the measures for evaluating a public administrator.

Whether he sits in his office...

Whether he solves problems...

Whether he reaches out to the citizens...

Whether he adds value to the city...

Otherwise, whether he wore sweatpants or leggings while going for a walk on the weekend; how could that possibly have anything to do with state administration?

I saw it when it was shared. A social media user made the following assessment regarding the behind-the-scenes of the issue:

"Friends, I am from Ardahan, let me tell you the real reason. CHP Kars MP İnan Akgün Alp threw out a remark saying 'he is riding a bicycle in leggings.' He did this very sneakily with peasant cunning! His only goal is to undermine our Governor, who introduced the Yalnızçam Ski Facilities to Turkey in 6 months, organized a cycling festival, and started skiing, rowing, and canoeing training at Lake Çıldır, and who is revealing Ardahan's tourism potential. He sabotaged the process of the hardworking Governor, whom the public loves, out of concern that this would cause a decrease in Kars tourism!

As a result, poor Ardahan will continue to remain poor! Why do I say this? Because over 1,000 cyclists from 71 provinces came to the cycling festival he organized on July 11th; if you consider that every 1 person brought 3 people, that makes 3,000 people. Ardahan has never hosted 3,000 tourists and foreigners in a single day outside of wars; that is the point!"

Truly, even if you do a quick search on Hz. Google, you can see how much of a great contribution Governor Çiçekli has made to the promotion of Ardahan and how hard he has worked for it.

And what about the MP İnan Akgün Alp, who complained about Governor Çiçekli...

His file is heavily stained.

The allegations are unspeakable; let's make them the subject of another article, but let's not forget that a restraining order was issued against him for beating his first wife and throwing her off a balcony.

Also, let's recall that the anti-legging MP was referred to the disciplinary board with a demand for permanent expulsion due to his statements and actions during the Özgür Özel era, but he escaped with a reprimand thanks to the intervention of Özgür Özel himself and was not expelled from the party.

If a public official is neglecting their duty, acting unlawfully, or causing public harm, they should certainly be criticized.

But ignoring their successful aspects and starting a lynching campaign over clothing is not producing politics; it is trying to create an artificial agenda.

Politics should talk about what people do, not what they wear. In short, what makes a governor successful or unsuccessful is not their wardrobe, but their performance.

The easy thing is to create an agenda by sharing a few photos on social media. The hard thing is to attract investment to a city with limited resources like Ardahan, to revitalize tourism, and to win the hearts of the citizens.

State seriousness is not achieved by putting a magnifying glass on people's private lives and personal choices. State seriousness is achieved by appreciating those who do their job and auditing those who do not within the framework of the law.

Bringing a governor's leggings to the national agenda does not earn points for the opposition, nor does it provide solutions to the real problems of the citizens.

The citizen is looking at prices in the market, the farmer at their field, the tradesman at their cash register, and the young people at their future...

The fact that a supposedly opposition politician is still looking at a governor's leggings is enough to explain why Turkey is standing still, and with that, let's put a period to our article.