Football .. Abdul Akram Emam Oglu to win Istanbul!
Almost two weeks after the surprise victory of Akram Emoğlu in the Istanbul municipal elections last March, which he narrowly won by about 13,000 votes, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) did not succumb to defeat, so Imam Oglu decided to exploit the influence of football stadiums in Turkey. What was published in the magazine "Foreign Policy".
On April 13, a match between Istanbul's clubs Besiktas and Pashakshahr was held at the Vodafone Park stadium in Peshiktas. At the end of the first half, some Besiktas fans chanted "Give permission to Imam Oglu." The sound system's loudspeakers were soon raised to cover the cheers, but the praise was heard by Imam Oglu.
So the next day he attended another Derby in Istanbul. The match between Fenerbahce and Galatasaray (which is part of Besiktas, one of the "Big Three" Turkish football teams, which has a large Turkish public).
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a well-known fan of Fenerbahce, but some fans of Fenerbahce, outside the stadium, chanted support for Emamoglu.
Many fans of Istanbul's three big teams took part in anti-government protests in 2013, and there is a feeling that their stadiums still carry a degree of anti-government sentiment. Emamoglu is keen to appear in games full of symbolic meaning. While flirting with the interest of the vast majority of Turkish football fans, he also implicitly criticized Pasha as a newly founded club for his close ties to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.
The popularity of the legitimate mayor increased
Imam Oglu won a mandate to govern Istanbul on April 17, but the Justice and Development Party demanded a re-vote in Istanbul on the pretext of irregularities. In May, the Supreme Electoral Council issued a controversial decision to annul the victory of Imam Oglu and ordered the re-election of the mayor of Istanbul on June 23. But Imamoglu's popularity seems to have grown since then.
Football played a crucial role in the political emergence of Imam Emoglu. The presence of the games was a popular move that had already played a role for Erdogan's AK Party, which is known for its encouragement and mad passion for football, and may help Emamoglu win again. Re-voting scheduled for Sunday.
Any politician whose grip on football in Turkey undoubtedly has a strong weapon in his arsenal. Successful politicians have used football since the 1950s after the country's transition to multi-party politics.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan Erdogan's allegations about "Fenerbahce"
Football has become part of Erdogan's myth as a man and a natural leader, to get from the shortest way to the hearts of the masses and easily understood language in a football obsessed country. Erdogan was a former semi-professional footballer who led IETT Spor, the transport team of Istanbul, to win the amateur championship in Istanbul in the 1970s.
Erdogan claims that Fenerbahce twice tried to get his signature as a semi-professional player, but refused to join them. He likes to open new stadiums, wear soccer jerseys and even score goals in football matches.
Method is funky
Imam Oglu, 49, belongs to the secular Republican People's Party, which has fought an election struggle in Istanbul since the 1970s, in part because of its elite reputation. The Republican People's Party (CHP) has also traditionally shown no taste for football. Although the view of government elites, early in the Republican era and left-wing politicians in later periods, is that the game of football is opium for the masses. But Imam Oglu has broken this tradition and created his populist legends.
In the same footsteps as Erdoğan, Imoğlu was also a semi-professional player – he played at the Turk Okagi Limassol club during his years at the university – and skillfully used football as a symbolic and popular tool to imitate Erdogan and break the differences.
"Imam Beckenbauer"
Emam Oglu said his childhood dream was to play for Trabzon Sport, one of Turkey's biggest clubs, and is in his hometown of Trabzon, on the Black Sea.
In an interview with the club's magazine in 2016, Imam Oglu cut off how his father wanted to send him to one of the oldest private colleges in Trabzon, but he persuaded him to send him to a public school famous for graduating professional footballers, such as the legendary goalkeeper Trabzon Spur. Like Erdogan, Imam Oglu also claims that he refused an opportunity to sign with a professional club, Spatsbor, in Akabat district of Trabzon province, because he preferred to continue his education.
Erdogan describes himself as a strong and dominant player on the pitch; his nickname was "Imam Beckenbauer," in reference to his piety and presumed resemblance to the German legend Franz Beckenbauer. The implication here is that it is equally well equipped to lead Turkish politics, according to Foreign Policy.
Guarding the political den
Emamoglu also highlighted his credentials through football, but from his point of view as a goalkeeper. In an interview with the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet immediately before the election, Imamoglu said that the privileged position of the goalkeeper allowed him to survey the whole stadium. "If your voice is strong, you are playing the game with your vote," he said. He also suggested that he may be the man who defends Turkish democracy against Erdogan's continuing attacks.
In order not to be outdone by Erdoğan when it comes to faith points, imam oglu (whose name means Imam's son) stressed his religious credentials through a video clip in the campaign that showed many pictures of football and how he did not take His place among the three pillars without saying "Basmalah".
But football is not just about rhetoric and mythology in Turkey; it is part of a vital network of power and prestige that binds politics and big corporations. After the university, Imam Oglu joined his family's construction company. He made a name for him at Trabzon Sport, even though he was not on the pitch after becoming the youngest member of the club's board in 2001.
Akram Emam Oglu A rapid rise of political peace
He joined the main opposition Republican People's Party in 2008 and in 2009 became head of the party's provincial branch in the small district of Pelikduzu in western Istanbul, where he has long been a member and board member of the local football team Belek Dozo Sport. His football affiliations are likely to have helped his rapid rise through the party, using the position as a starting point to become mayor of the region in 2014.
His reputation as an active and popular mayor of Belikduzo led him to choose his Republican People's Party (CHP) leadership as a candidate in Istanbul's municipal elections in 2019.
When Imam Oglu unexpectedly won the municipal elections in Istanbul on March 31 – less than 0.2 percent – over the Justice and Development Party (PJD) candidate, former Prime Minister Ben Ali Yildirm, the result apparently ended the ruling party's 25- The Justice and Development Party and its Islamist predecessors were a personal blow to Erdogan, who rose to the national forefront as mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s.
Strengthening legitimacy
In the weeks of uncertainty following the election, as Imoğlu awaited his term as mayor and then demanded the Justice and Development Party to rerun the elections, he showed he was unaffected by the government's moves. His decision to attend the city's biggest football teams after the election was aimed at strengthening his legitimacy as a mayor.
On 20 April, Imam Oglu also attended a match at Galatasaray. After the game, he posted pictures of social media as he waved to the fans and vowed to support "all the sports clubs in this city, especially the three major clubs."
Imam Oglu is the only one who can not attend the Big Three for fear of being booed (as in the opening of the new Galatasaray stadium in 2011).
A sting tactic
So far, the football strategy is in favor of Imam Oglu. But, as Erdogan noted, football is often the undisciplined territory of Turkey, and has pitfalls for those trying to harness it to increase their power.
The pro-government AKT channel broadcast a plot to defame Imamoglu by trying to link Trabzon Sport to the banned Gulen movement, which includes followers of Fathullah Gulen, a cleric living in the United States, who blames the Turkish government On his movement in the management of a failed military coup in 2016.
Fenerbahce has already claimed that the match-fixing scandal in 2011, in which the club was accused of manipulating matches largely at the expense of Trabzonspor, was handled by prosecution representatives close to the Gulen movement, as part of a conspiracy to take over the reins Things at Fenerbahce Club.
It is now Turkey's common tactic to stigmatize any critic of the government by accusing him of belonging to the Gulen movement, and Emamoglu strongly denies any such connection.
"All is well"
The opposition and many observers have criticized the decision to cancel the victory of imamoglu in March and re-vote, and considered it an attack on the remaining remnant of democracy in Turkey. But Imam Oglu made a positive and provocative speech promising to win again and sought to reassure voters.
The slogan of the campaign was: "Everything will be fine" Rey cey guzel olacak and fans of the football teams chanted it as a cheat in the lap of Besiktas and Fenerbahce in the final weeks of the football season.
Following Erdogan's footsteps, Imoğlu's politics largely depended on his character. Although Turkey's economic crisis has pushed some voters away from the ruling Justice and Development Party and benefited from the election agreement among many of the main opposition parties, Emamoglu kept a calm, conciliatory and inclusive tone to reach conservative voters, With Erdogan's speech, which often provokes debate and controversy.
The only contender in 20 years
Emamoglu, a largely unknown figure before the election campaign, has helped to show a political figure, communicate skillfully with the public, and also facilitate his ascendancy in institutions. Some already speculate that he may be running against Erdogan in the 2023 presidential election.
Few politicians have been able to compete with Erdogan over the past two decades in terms of popular and personal credentials, and no one has competed in using football as a rhetorical tool, a path to power, or a means of framing his personal myth.
Repel the penalty
Imamoglu has managed to deal with all the shots that have been leveled against him over the past few weeks, and Erdogan and his party realize that they are facing a brave opponent. As he prepares to tackle (as a former goalkeeper) to repel the most important penalty of his career, Imamoglu hopes he can do enough to win this controversial replay.
(tagsToTranslate) Turkish Elections (t) Erdogan (t) Justice and Development Party (t) Akram Emam Oglu (t) Turkey (t) Istanbul
ليست هناك تعليقات